Texans prepare for KC, is it really a rivalry?

Wednesday on The A-Team, Clanton and Wex discuss Texans-Chiefs, preview Rockets-Kings, and react to DeMeco Ryans and CJ Stroud's presser. Plus, Astros executive VP Giles Kibbe joins the show to discuss exciting news for Space City Home Network.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's two to one on a Wednesday edition of the
A Teams Force Talk seven ninety Gosh, I tell you
a lot of you guys are probably looking around out
there today.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
And you're like, ooh, this winter weather's dreary. I don't like.
This is the best weather out there. I love this.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
It's not a word I would use for today, dreary. Yeah,
it's that you gotta have some bad this. This is
not bad weather.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's just nice.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Some people, some people look at this kind of weather,
especially in this city, and they like freak out.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Because I was excited that this is a Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
I knew I'd be outside of Texans practice for a
few minutes and it's.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Gonna be pleasant and you're not gonna be sweating.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well, this is what we've been sweating in a Texans
practice for a while, exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is what we have earned, we being Houstonians.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Living to look forward to the training camp days too. No, no,
I'm sweating. Nobody looks forward. I get to see the
whole practice. That's line. But it would be nice if
it wasn't in hell itself.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's right down the road. I don't live in hell.
You do live in hell. You live in Houston.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's not hell The temperatures here are hellacious every seas
year for an exorbitant amount of months out of the year.
All I'm asking for is seasons, and we're never going
to get them. I live in the wrong city for this,
so I'll just get mad about it and nothing will
happen and there we go. But uh, it's why I
like days like today. I like it overcast. You know what,
Screw the sun. It's out enough here so I don't

(01:18):
need to see it for a while. And I'm glad
that we have this kind of weather, especially when you
consider that when the Texans get up to Kansas City,
we don't know exactly what it's going to be. It's
gonna be a heck of a lot colder than this,
and in all likelihood it's going to somewhat affect the
game that's going to be played after the sun goes

(01:38):
down up there.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Kansas City winners are no joke, man.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
We were talking about this earlier this week because my
in laws sent me a picture of it because they're
covered in snow right now, or at least they were
two days ago. I personally, and with all the factors
at play and everything that's at stake obviously in this game.
I would love it if a bunch of snow dumped
on that stadium before Sunday night. I think it would
be great for the Texans. It would help to neutralize

(02:02):
their biggest threat. Talking about the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes,
and I don't think it would affect this type of
defense from doing what they do best, which is killing people.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I think that would help. Why do you think it
would hurt them? Pert? Pat Mahomes, he plays in it
all the time every.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Year, does he? Though he plays a cold Evember in December?
He does, Yeah, but he doesn't playing like a blizzard
every year. Okay, well, there's a difference to that.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
I didn't realize you were looking for the worst conditions
ever played.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Said I wanted it to dump snow on the stadium.
What do you think I meant?

Speaker 3 (02:33):
I mean a Blizzard's different if it dumps, if it's snowing,
and it's not Wendy who cares well.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
The wind is not the only thing that would affect
that situation.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
If the Texans are playing in the worst cold weather
game in their team's history, then that's something. If they're
playing in a cold weather game with snow and wind
that's typical Kansas City late season weather, which they unfortunately
play in a lot, and the Texans playing next to never.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
And it's really only about the guys out there.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Do you think cold weather affects cdj's passing and they're
passing game? They think they have a bunch of players
who just aren't used to it, and they do because
they're in Houston and not a lot of them have
been elsewhere where they've been playing in these conditions. So
I think the advantage is with the team that plays
in it. Usually Yeah, and again, no matter what the condition,
practice is in it. No matter what the conditions are,

(03:19):
the team that has the better quarterback is usually the
team that is affected the least by it. And the
Texans don't have that.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
No, but they definitely have the better defense that neutralizes
quarterbacks a lot and neutralizes running backs. But the Chiefs
don't have one of those, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Texans have played a Chiefs team many times with Pat
Mahomes that have had injury issues on the offensive line.
They have some significant ones. Again this time, I hope
it matters. This time it hasn't usually in the past,
but as they get started with their early practices there
are definitely almost assured changes and what they like to
have out there. Don't think we're close enough to return

(03:55):
for Tray Smith. They had to replace both tackles last week,
and it's possible that is still true for this game
on Sunday night, But as we get closer to it,
we should know definitively if the Texans incredibly talented front
will go against a team less equipped than they could
be to stop it.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
In that vein, you were out at practice earlier and
there was a there was quite the list of guys
who weren't participating, and I came in and I said
something to you about this, because you know it's not it's.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Wednesday, it's well, but it's also December.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
So yeah, to your point, it's early enough in the
week that it's not well.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Wednesday practice is the first practice they have without pads.
Friday practice is the second practice they have without pads,
and it's a walkthrough. And Thursday is the practice that
if there's any real consequence, that's usually the one we
pay the most attention to. It's also a little bit
closer to the end of the week and as you're
noting it's there in December, they're just trying to in
my opinion, and I don't know specifics on any of
these five players. The five players I did not see

(04:57):
at practice that many of you may have seen on
social media because of all the reporting, I don't believe
any of them are in any jeopardy of missing the game.
But I know the least about Kamari Lassiter because I
don't think anything took place in Sunday's game that I'm
aware of, and obviously he's practiced throughout the season, so
I don't know the reason for that one. They made

(05:18):
some changes to the roster that I don't think impact
that with a couple of players signed to the active
roster off the practice squad. Will Anderson Junior not seeing
at the early portion of viewing portion of practice, but
he's also done that at times throughout all three of
his seasons. As he's trying to just get him on Sunday,
that's really the only concern, and I think that's where
we're headed with him. Trent Brown not at practice today,

(05:40):
but I think that's the same situation there. He's been
playing through an injury, a foot injury, And I don't
know that that's what this is, but that's my assumption
here before Demiko speaks, and he usually doesn't shed a
whole lot of light on it. We'll get some light
shed on that when the injury report comes out. But
hopefully they can continue with Trent Brown out at right
tackle because he's part of the best five they've put

(06:00):
on the field so far this season.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Hopefully that continues. Deniko Autry not practicing.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
He has been ready for game day for the last
several weeks, despite very limited practice time due to a
couple of injuries that he's just trying to play through.
And as I rattled through, oh, what he marks was
the other one? He obviously was hurt during the game return,
and that one would be the one we probably know
the least about from how much it's affecting him. Coming

(06:26):
back in the game is always a good sign. So
I would still make the subtle assumption it's all in
an effort to make sure he is good to go
on Sunday night in Kansas City, rather than can he
practice Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I just like you said, what he marks is
the one that got my attention the most, even though,
like you said, Kamari Lassiter we know the least about
and you weren't necessarily expecting to maybe not see him
out there. What he marks is the one that left
the game. What he marks is the one that did
he go on the tent. I can't remember if he
did in the locker room. Yeah, yeah, I mean he
came back thing exactly. So he won the game for them.

(07:02):
He did win the game for them.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
You want the ball back? I don't think so. And
the defense won the game for them too. Offense was
on the field. The game ended thanks to Woody.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
But why was the defense not on the field because
they had already done their job. Well, you have to
do it again. If Woody doesn't do this, I think
we can do this all day. I know we can,
and we probably will at some point. But yeah, so
the Texans, the work has officially really begun for Kansas
City and doing something that you just haven't done a
lot lately. I was thinking about you mentioned twenty nineteen

(07:36):
was the last time they.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Won their You mentioned that yesterday.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
I believe Brown's new the practice available quarterback was on
the field for that one.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I believe that is.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I think I was coming back from going to the
pumpkin patch. It's the weirdest things that I remember about
games like that. The last time I remember, oh wow,
they're gonna beat the Chiefs in Kansas City, and uh, well.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
When you have Carlos hide in your backfield, you do
good things happen.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
That That is so, I mean, twenty nineteen is so
many like lifetimes ago for this organization.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
I mean the current coaching staff was not in place. Well, yeah,
was the current ownership in place? Would you say that
was when they were in flux? I mean, I'm I
literally this is now where I need assistance.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Well, when was Casario hired? Well, he hasn't been there
for that long. He was hired prior to just not
a Casario game.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
No, I know that. I'm just trying to get my
bearings here because the season that.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, I guess Jack easter b had been around by then,
so obviously there had been, in my opinion, an ownership shift.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
O'Brien was still though not hire him. No, so there
you go. Who did hire him?

Speaker 2 (08:50):
The current ownership group.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
So you're telling me right now this is something I
actually wasn't aware of you're telling me that Callan Hannah
brought in Jack Easterbye while Bob was still the act.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Didn't say any of that.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
I'm just saying I know when this that a part
of it happened so well, I just know that Bob
didn't hire him.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
I guess was that see, And that's the part I guess.
I'd never really knew how he got hired or who
was responsible for it this whole time. It's just like
he almost like showed up one day and was now
doing things well.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
The newly uh, you're coming back next year, Bill O'Brien
era all blends it all. That's that's why it happened. Honestly,
it was less of a cal Hannah thing and more
of a well there's there's the initial relationship than Patriots
angle obviously, and there you go.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
It always goes back to the Patriots with this organization.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
It doesn't have to, but it will continue as the
leader of the organization. Internally, from a personnel standpoint, you
can't get much more among currently active working people in
the NFL. Nobody has more Patriots ties than Nick Cassario.
I don't think there's anybody working for any other organization
in the NFL that has worked for the Patriots longer

(09:59):
than he he has, and he's working here now.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
I could be wrong. The only one that's the true
I do think that's the case. Yeah. The only the
one you.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Could have said that about before was Mike Vrabel when
he wasn't a part of the Patriots, and now that
he's their head coach.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
I don't he hadn't been a part of the Patriots
longer than Nick. So Nick was there when he was drafted.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, I mean, you got all of his years as
a player, and then then what how many years as
a coach?

Speaker 1 (10:21):
I just thought, in my mind, it feels like Mike
Vrabel played for them for fifteen plus seasons.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
And Nick worked there for twenty plus. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, I guess I just didn't realize just how much
of his life he's spent there before coming.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
He was out on the field today, of course, of
course he was. Was he throwing passes? Of course he was.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
He was not throwing passes today. They don't need him
for the limited work they were doing today. Today's more
of a Danny Barnett or Danny Barrett throwing passes on
the side to Nick Chubb and Nico Collins.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
You got Frank Ross.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
He almost always works with the white outs at the
beginning of practice. Quarterbacks are over here, and then the
white outs are over there. He'll work with them as
CJ and Graham and Davis are throwing to the running
backs and Frank will handle the passing to the wideouts.
I feel like Frank Rosney makes up there every morning
and runs through a brick wall before he leaves the house.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
He also throws bebies that part of practice. Does this
surprised me?

Speaker 3 (11:11):
He is burning those throws in there. He is a
He's a quick twitch guy. He's also out there before
everybody else. The specialists are always the ones on the
field when we get out there.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
As I've never talked to him. Is he fun to
talk to? Frank?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, he's phenomenal. That's what I thought, Absolutely unbelievable. His
sideline demeanor screams that well he I think he loves
the game so much that whatever position he was in,
and he's been the special teams coordinator here through many
coaching changes for a reason.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
That's a big deal.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
And if you've noticed, and I'm sure many of you
have watch games and look at what you can see
from the sidelines. It's a little difficult when you're watching
on TV. It's much much easier if you care to
pay attention to this instead of the on field stuff
during the game. Look how much time Frank spends talking
to Dimico.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
During He's always right next to him.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
He's become much much more more than Yeah, he runs
the special teams. No, he is a huge part of
what Demico ryans Texans are on game day because of
how much input and assistance he is looked to from Damiico.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
He's like a head lieutenant.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
He's just really involved because he knows everything, like he's
been around at a high enough level. I mean, it's
why a guy like John Harbaugh can be a successful
head coach even though he doesn't call plays and even
though he's not an offensive coach or a defensive coach,
because his rise came through the special teams coordinator position.
They know what's going on with everything. They are some

(12:35):
of them, and obviously he was the same way, and
they're extremely valuable to their respective coaching staffs.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
And Frank is very much that.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
I don't doubt it one bit, and I'm glad he's
a part of things and seems to be for the
foreseeable future. Okay, enough, Texans Minutia, we will actually get
to the matchup. We will get to a match up
here in Houston tonight between your Rockets and the Sacramento Kings.
They've got five wins. Let's try not to lose to
another team like that. To night Rockets and uh oh,
looks like CP three's reunion with the Clippers didn't even

(13:06):
last an entire season. So that, among other things, we
will get to here on a Wednesday edition of the program,
It's Sports Talk seven ninety, it's the A team. It's
Sports Talk seven ninety Wednesday edition of the program. We're
getting you to Rockets basketball tonight. They will be taking
on the Sacramento Kings. Hopefully the Rockets will find a

(13:28):
way to not get swept by that organization this year.
I'm sorry, like the Aaron Fox or no the Aaron
Fox and you know what, Demarta Rosen and no tomorrow Derozen.
That just shouldn't happen. But the Rockets found a way
to do that last year.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
This was much better last year, which might be hard
to believe, but it is still true.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
It's true. No, they were, but Demarta rosen so the
de' aaron Fox deal. Did they have zach Lavine the
whole trade, the whole season two? Or was that at
a late arrival the whole time? Was he also a
trade deadline act inquisition?

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yes, I don't know if it was the deadline acquisition,
but acquisition nonetheless. Yeah, he always doesn't matter. If you
go to the Kings Pro shop, it looks awesome. There's
a Sabonus jersey. There's a DeRozan jersey, there's a Levine jersey,
there's a Monk jersey. Man, this team must be awesome.
They suck. They do not care about them because they
don't care about basketball. They are the Clippers in a

(14:24):
different set of uniforms, with a slightly less talent and
super old. They don't play basketball to win. They just
play basketball.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's always been fascinating to me how teams can put
talent together and you would assume that they would just
trip and fall into being at least a winning organization
just above five hundred, and it doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Deer and Fox years, they at least elevated themselves to
a you know, a fringe playoff team, a team that
they thought, all right, we could get there, we could
get there, and they never could. And so they correctly
pulled the plug on that. I mean last year, like
I'm saying this year's team. In last year's team, they
were forty fi forty two last year. This year's team
is an embarrassment to basketball. The forty and forty two

(15:05):
is not an embarrassment to basketball. Doug Christy won more
than half of his games last year. They can't win.
They don't play hard, they don't play defense, they don't
play hard. They are totally disjointed offensively, like Utah is
significantly better, significantly better than Sacramento, even though the record
is close to it. But at five and sixteen, they're

(15:26):
on the bottom five in offensive raiding, they're in the
bottom five and defensive rating. They get blown out all
the time. The Rockets should blow blow This is the
team they should blow out. You know who does play
hard for them? You know who else's jersey you can
find in their pro shop. That's awesome. That's going to
the Hall of Fame. No russ Oh I forgot he
was there. I know because they've got signed there at

(15:46):
the last second. Right, DeMar Derozen Russell Westbrook, Malik Monk,
Zach Lavine, Debona Sabonis. Those are all five guys are
on this current team. They're not all healthy. One of
them is hurt.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, Sabonas has been out for a while, big deal.
They didn't win with him either this year.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, they won against the Rockets with him physically, this
year's team does not know how to play winning basketball.
I'm not sure the exact reason for it, other than
the information I just gave you that you were bad
at offense and defense.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
That should be enough to tell you.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
But with those particular names on the backs of those
jerseys and the typical pride that usually goes with players
that wear them, that made their legacy, that made that
brand matter, you wouldn't think this would happen.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
But they don't.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
They just don't play very hard, and they certainly don't
play very hard on defense, and they just play individually
on offense.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, it's it is wild because that has been the
case for It's a tail as old as time in
the NBA, where you just put a hodgepodge together and
hope for the best. Sometimes is how I think that
front offices approach some of these teams judging by how
their run and how the on.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Court product or lack thereof, is doled out there. But
I would actually say they have the worst roster in
the NBA. Really, yep, worse than the Wizards. What the
Wizards actually have players you'd like to see developed, like
Alex sar and Cam Witmore and others.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
There's somewhere to go with them. The Yeah, these are
like also treads.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
These guys have no good young players unless you think
Kean hill Ellis is one, and they have a bunch
of veterans who obviously hate what they're doing every day,
or else.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
They would play harder.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Of the guys like that that you're talking about, who
would best benefit or or who could, let me put
it this way, who could.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Come in and not ruin what you already have going.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
That's good, while at the same time, you know, helping
a maybe a contender or a team that fancied his
self maybe will be a contender if we get one
more piece, and this would be that guy.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Is is it DeRozan?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
Not?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
In my opinion, I'm kind of with you because I
feel like he's a volume shooter and everywhere he's gone,
they've lost, and when he left, they got better.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's a tough one to put on his shoulders. When
it was a championship in Toronto, they also got better
in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
San Antonio. Just kidding before and after.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Again, I think that might be a little far. And
his you know, his individual numbers are okay, just like always,
but they don't play winning basketball. Keegan Murray is a
terrible young player to believe you have to build around,
in my opinion, especially when he's a shooter and he's
shooting twenty six percent on threes. The only player I
like that they have that I've always liked. I'm amazed

(18:22):
that he's still there is Malik Monk. He's kind of
a volume shooter, so I think that scares a lot
of people. But as a sixth man, as a tempo changer,
as a forty percent three point shooter, the best that
the Kings have this year, that's somebody that should just
absolutely not be there anymore, because I think it could
help a team with a better culture, a better setup
from a roster standpoint, and for all I know, a

(18:43):
better coach. I don't know if Doug Christy's a good
coach or not. I never thought he would be, but
I don't have enough information on it yet. That's a
little unfair some people. Yeah, he's a player. I would
like to see elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Some people were suggesting he gets traded to the Rockets
because they needed point guard help. But this was when
Reid wasn't really doing what Reed's doing now, and some
of the trade scenarios I saw had Fred van Vliet
going back there. Here's the thing about Fred van Vliet.
He has a no trade clause. I think people are
forgetting that.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, we're about to the point of the season where
actually discussing from trades might make sense because we're almost
to the point where you can actually make them. Because
we're getting to December fifteenth, we're getting to where it
might make some sense. It's all the same thing we
talked about from the jump. Then the Rockets knew that
Fred van Vliet wasn't going to be available to them
due to injury. They were always going to do what
has happened. There was no opportunity to sign anybody else,

(19:28):
both because nobody else was available and they financially were
capped in their abilities to do that. So they had
about six weeks. We're about five weeks into that or
maybe eight weeks better October twenty first to their last
game before December fifteenth, to see what they actually have.
How much Amend Thompson at point guard do we want?
And I think they have found out part of that

(19:49):
answer less than what we've gotten, hopefully, how much reached
Shepherd at point guard do you want? Probably more than
what we've seen already. He's been good and bad as
a starter. He's been pretty good as a reserve as
part of that second unit, whether that's limiting his minutes
or having a better opportunity to keep the ball in
his hands where it looks like he's actually at his best,

(20:10):
and Amend Thompson when the ball's not in his hands,
he's probably at his best. So that's what the Rockets
have done. They've utilized this time properly. We have so
much more information on this year's team with that particular position.
We don't necessarily know what the answer is, but probably
more reed Shepherd and less amen Thompson is part of it.
Whether there's an outside player on his way in sometime

(20:32):
over that two month period between December fifteenth and the
trade deadline, well, we'll see what other teams have to
offer and what other players they can actually consider that
would make some sense. And then obviously financially, how you
make it work. They clearly would have to give something
up to get it. They'll know more about the rest
of the roster that they're even more reluctant to part with.
They're very well equipped to go at it any which

(20:52):
way they want. They could absolutely do nothing, and I wouldn't.
I don't think it would bother me at all. A
lot more basketball to play to see if that's truly
going to be the case. But they get a couple
of games at home here tonight and Friday, and then
they will see the Mavericks on Saturday, and we'll see
how they also deal with their first tough scheduling portion
of the entire season. It will be five games in

(21:13):
seven days, with travel throughout much of it. It's nice
that you were in Utah for the first two Obviously
you didn't have to travel after you got back until
the extremely long trip to Dallas on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
That's that's a rough forty five minute flight that when
you're on a charter is even feels like it's even less.
I've always been averse to flying to Dallas. It just
seems like it would take longer in the final analysis
than driving there when you factor when you factor in
everything you got to do to get there in a flight,
and it's that short of a flight. Wouldn't do everything

(21:46):
you have to do, drive to the airport, drive to
the airport, check in. Even if you've done it ahead
of time, you still it's still never as seamless, wait
in the stupid line for security, TSA or all that,
then there is going to.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Be a delay.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
So you're at all these things that might not happen. Yeah,
but if you get in your car and d last
time I drove, I flew to Dallas, none of the
negatives happened, drove, parked, checked in, TSA, sat there, got on, arrived.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
But if you know you're driving to Dallas, and you
know from where your driveway is to where you're going
in that city, is this this long? Then other than
a collision in which there's always going to be an
alternate route you can take, you're gonna get there in
that amount of time, no questions asked.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Probably faster if you're riding with me, Not necessarily.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, maybe faster, but airports thirty minutes away, flights forty
five minutes, give myself an hour and hanging out at
the airport, get there an hour hour and a half early.
Maybe add to that, I'm their way earlier and my
ride's waiting for me. And when I get there now
you can't fly out of hobby factor that in, uh,
we gotta take a break, all right when we come back.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
The Best of X as Usual two thirty every single day,
did you all see this?

Speaker 4 (23:02):
You should be putting out Between five and post four
hundred people were arrested for things that they said on
social media.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
History repeats itself. Type and you will succeed. Never doubt
that you're the one who was for no one.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Build the lead. You're the best. Nothing's gonna have a top.
You know you're the best of it. Posting every single day.
You know you're the best of it, X breaking the
entire Internet.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Best of Becks on a Wednesday edition of the program.
This one was easy for me when I came across it.
It's somewhat spicy, but I think if you know who
we're talking about here, it really shouldn't necessarily surprise you
in that I think and I'm not sure on this

(24:02):
WEX would remember something like this. Hasn't this been something
that has been attached to Lane Kiffen before that? He
I don't know how to phrase this is a little
bit inappropriate when it comes to the cod category of
what his job description entails.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Uh, yeah, I feelny off. It's true. Well, that's what
I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
It's always been like where there's smoke, there might be fire,
but you don't know for sure. And you know these
are again screen caps, so fake.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Is it a high like I know, I don't know
these days? But an account called snow Bunny University.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
I wonder how they get their followers and eyeballs. Well,
I didn't peruse the account.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
I'm gonna do that now keep going, Okay, I just
looked at this one post. All miss sorority girls are
coming out all caps, exposing Lane Kiffen with their text
messages and dms, And then the question is asked, are
these good shots? At least I e shoots your shot? Look,

(25:13):
A lot of these are snapchat screen caps, if you will,
so they're not just dms on Instagram. And by the way,
in case you're wondering, like Josh Jordan might not know
the rules on this. It says it's best of X,
but it's basically any social media. There's screen caps of
him sliding into the DMS of all these girls, and

(25:35):
I mean, if these were fake, they did a very
good job. Let's put it that way. From the way
the text writ well, what's a FR stand for? What's
it short?

Speaker 2 (25:48):
For real? Exactly?

Speaker 1 (25:50):
So you know, at nearly one o'clock in the afternoon
one day, Lane Kiffin sent this one co ed for real.
I was nervous about trip thing, not knowing for sure
if we would get along great, especially since the game
or the one dinner and barnight is with all the
SEC head coaches.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Ha.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
So this was such a good surprise.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
I get to see you today do the stadium part
of picks first, so I can let you guys in. Also,
maybe don't call people and tell them about us. Might
be a good secret between us for now. I mean
sounds like he wants to keep it on the DL
as much as possible.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
What else?

Speaker 3 (26:25):
What else do we have in the definitely clearly obviously
factually sent messages back and forth.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Happy for you, boyfriend, doing okay and then haha, we
broke up a few months ago and he responded with
sc and the person responded to that and said, what
does that mean lol? And he said, snap, I mean
he's just he's very active for a guy who's a

(26:57):
head coach at a big SEC school.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Still snow Bunny University has six hundred and eight thousand
followers on the Instagram and most of their posts are comparable,
but some of them just have headlines across the posts,
so I don't have to click through them all and
go through each of the five to seven pictures that
are added there, or read some of the headlines or
captions they've put on the preview of Hey, you might

(27:22):
want to click on this one. One of the more
recent ones, says Matt Barnes, finessed by ai ig Model.
Another one says Dylan Gabriel's wife shades Shaduer and the Browns.
The obvious one you're referencing leaked by Girls at Ole Miss.
It's a picture of Lane that we're talking about. There's
a picture of Juan Soto looking like he is ready

(27:44):
to take his baseball card picture, and the caption there
says Juan Khalifa, and over his shoulder is a picture
of Mia and most of you know who she is,
real life Shark. There's a picture of Michael Phelps kissing
a gold medal and a pretty good looking woman and
a little smaller picture on that to entice you to
click through. A picture of what I believe is Sunny

(28:08):
Lee and it says wants a man who can pay
for her and all her friends. Mama Pavia is wilding.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
I'm sensing a pattern. Bronnie, please leave these ig models alone. Okay.
And there's also a Matt Khalil.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Post what did he do? We talked about him on
the show. I refresh my memory. His wife had gone
on a podcast. In their mind, there was a reason
that their marriage was struggling.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
I remember. That's why I did not read that headline.
I don't know if I would use.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
That term, but they got divorced because of it. According
to her, that's that's a struggling marriage.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
So even if you wanted to give every name you
just mentioned the benefit of the doubt, are you gonna
sit here and tell me you think that this doesn't
go on all the time.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
It's not about giving him the benefit of the doubt,
and this one we are questioning the validity of sure.
But this is a TMZ version of I don't care
if it's true or not. All I want to tell
you is, here's a woman, here's a man, here's something.
Let's get it out there and you guys can have
fun making up your own mind about it now. Laine
has been divorced for many years. Obviously his kids, some

(29:21):
of them are more visible than others with where they
go to school or what they do.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
He's got a volleyball playing daughter obviously.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Another daughter, Landry, is with him a lot, since they
participate in social media together. She also is dating someone
that played for a team he played against Take the Over,
but now plays for the team he coaches.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
And then I did and I lost. So it's Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Going from ole Miss to LSU only means we will
talk more about Lane kiffn than we ever have before.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Ha ha ha ha wild you can't tell Tyler he'd
hate me. Hell no, I don't talk. So is that
a yes? Come over tonight? Yes, but has to be
top secret, And in my opinion, I could be wrong.
We use it all the time.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
It seems like on our show for different reasons, like
Tyler sounds up, sounds like the made up name for
some person, like a Ghoster, Like there's no Tyler in
the picture, or a Trevor Bauer.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Exactly, it's just a made up name.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
That's the name that Alex made up. I know when
talking about it, or was it Lance? I can't I
brought it up.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, but from uh, you know, he's been with the Raiders,
he's been with the Balls, he's been with the Trojans,
he's been with the Awls, he's been with the Rebels.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Now he's a tiger. Let the fun continue.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
The snapchat ones were not necessarily silacious, but just it's
like if he there.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Was nothing salacious about them at all. Do you want
to hang out? Do you want to come over it?
That was it? No way, I need my girlfriend back
for this big decision. That's not sillatious salacious. How many
girlfriends does he have? He didn't say the girlfriend was
singular girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Will you marry me? That's pretty selati. It's forward.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
It's clearly not meant to be taken seriously. What did
you think about his emoji? What was the emoji? Well,
he's wearing like a Beanie.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Oh, okay, I don't know that emoji.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
I can't even remember the last time I logged into Snapchat,
but I don't even know what my emoji.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
My emoji on there might still have hair fob.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
You're Persey or me emoji basically get that okay, whatever,
whatever the kids call it.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I'm an old now, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Lane Kiffin making a very rare appearance probably once a
week moving forward on the Best of X.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Not even the only.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Appearance he'll make on the show today.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
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That is awesome first of all.

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Secondly, it's what you get just for having Houston's premier
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Speaker 2 (32:56):
We're just getting started here in Houston.

Speaker 6 (33:00):
Just keep doing the key stacking Man Real Texans selected,
Keep It Real.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Pays Demiko Rans from the Houston Texans.

Speaker 6 (33:06):
Keep listening right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Good
now to dry Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Speaker 6 (37:08):
The A Team continues on Sports Talk seven ninety. All right,
it is the A Team.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety Wednesday edition of the program.
We will have the simulcast startup as per usual at
the top of the hour. We will also catch up
with Giles Kibbi, he's the ASTROS Executive VP and general counsel.
About a fantastic new option for you guys out there
with regards to Space City Home Network being able to

(37:45):
watch the games and all of the us well, yeah, everything,
everything is on the table, but you know, watching it
on an app.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Yeah, I don't think the launch of Space City Home
Network plus s E h N Plus was really driven
by the A team simulcast.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Why not it should have been.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I think it was driven by basketball games, yes, and
Astros baseball games, which you can now watch via the
Space City Home Network Plus provision the app if you will,
or online or through a number of different outlets.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
We'll talk to Giles about all that.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
The continuing evolution of content in general from a cable,
slash streaming, slash app, slash streaming slash cable slash app
and all points in between continues to evolve. And so yeah,
the latest installment of that topic as it pertains the
Houston Sports we will definitely be talking to Giles about

(38:40):
that looking forward to that. That's at three point thirty
by the way, so a little less than an hour away,
actually little less than forty five minutes away from having
that conversation. In the meantime, the Texans and going into
the game against the Colts last week, we basically said,
there's a lot of things you have to do to win,
especially against the team that's had that kind of success
this year leading up to the game and on the road,

(39:02):
all the things that go with that. But you and
I basically agreed. You gotta stop Jonathan Taylor. If you
stop Jonathan Taylor, then you've got, like, I don't know
what kind of percentages you would have put on that
before the game, you got a seventy five percent chance
to win.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
I know it's easy to say if you stop Patrick Mahomes,
then you know similar results there going to Kansas City.
But is that is that the number one thing? Because
stopping a running back who's really really good in the
NFL is one thing. Stopping probably one of, if not
the best quarterback currently in the NFL, even if the

(39:39):
season he's having and his team is having isn't as
spectacular as we're used to, that's quite another.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
He's got five games this year where he's had multiple
touchdown passes, and this last game on Thursday was the
first one of those games that they've lost. They lost
thirty one to twenty eight. Each of those games they've
scored twenty eight points or more, and each of the
other four they were winners. In that means he's had
the majority of his schedule this year. Seven of his
twelve games he's had one touchdown pass or none.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
In those games.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
He's also thrown five of his interceptions of the seven
in those games. Well, their record in the games where
he doesn't throw multiple touchdown passes is two and five,
and that's not the only way to measure whether you
stopped him or not. He's had less than sixty percent
completions in three of his games. They've lost all of them,
or they've lost two of those three, but they fall

(40:30):
into that only one touchdown pass category. So usually when
he's not lighting, you up himself personally in the end zone,
because you can still he can have a three hundred
and fifty yard day no touchdowns and somebody else ran
it in or he ran it in, and you wouldn't
know the difference. But this year it actually is a
pretty good indicator. He's got five games with the passer
rating of better than one hundred. Those are the five
games where he's had multiple touchdown passes. He's not one

(40:53):
of the highest rated quarterbacks in the league this year.
Most of his numbers are unlike his career numbers. They
went down a little bit like last year in certain categories. Well,
this year he's got a sixty four point six percent
completion percentage. That's the lowest of his career, not an
accident that they're six and six. This is not the
best football he's ever played. This isn't even close to

(41:13):
the best football he's ever played. He's so awesome that
he's still pretty good and capable of beating anybody on
any given day, but he's just not nearly on the
same page with his oc his lineman, his running backs,
and his receiving targets that he has been for most
of the rest of his career. And it's showing because
they have gone through this now probably each of the
last three years. They're trying to figure it out on

(41:35):
offense a little bit, even with him, because that aspect
of their offense isn't as clean and sharp and smooth
as it was at the beginning of his career when
he first came in and it was a breeze because
everybody just kept coming back, essentially, and obviously Travis was
his key target then and was in his prime. They
don't have anybody as good as Tyreek Hill, even though
she Rice is pretty good. He also has missed still

(41:56):
at this point, the majority of the season. He missed
the first seven games, so he's only been back for
the last five. A lot of reasons why they haven't
been who they are offensively, and it's not really the
offense that internally in Kansas City and their fans are
worried about. It's their defense, although which is nowhere near
as capable as last year's defense.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Chris Jones is still there, but as you look at
their schedule and you take into account that they are
now going to be without their left tackle for at
least four.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Games as of thirty five minutes ago, that's official. I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
They put Josh Shimmons on iri at risk surgery and
he left their last game with this injury. Also missed
a good chunk of the season for personal reasons.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
But he's there.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
He was the player I thought the Texans had they
stayed at twenty five, would have drafted, could have drafted.
He ended up going at the end of the first
round of the Chiefs. Has played well despite all the
times so that he has missed. Trace Smith's probably not
going to play either.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
That's huge. You had mentioned it. They have spots of
concern on the offensive line. Now look at their schedule.
Who's the best defense they've played? It's easy, uh, Denver? Yeah, Now,
I'm not gonna sit here and say, well, they played
a good defense and they lost boom done on the
last play on a field goal exactly. But look at
the score twenty two to nineteen. That is a textbook

(43:17):
Texans win. This season.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
It's close, it's one score Broncos win.

Speaker 13 (43:21):
It is.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
But I like I guess they have six losses. They
lost the first of those six games by a one
score margin, and every game since all of their losses
are the same seven six, three three three, but three
how much they scored.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
In those losses is different.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Although now well, the first two games they basically were
averaging twenty in losses. They lost twenty seven to twenty
one to the Chargers to open the season, and then,
of course famously, they played the Eagles. These were both
home games, by the way, kind of that's true. One
of them was in Kansas City. They were considered home games,
which is always deceptive. I don't think we should. I

(44:02):
don't know how to do that.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
It's tough to go into Philadelphia or Brazil and get
a win.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
But it is tough when you only score seventeen points,
as you scored nineteen in the loss to the Broncos,
and as I think if the Texans end up going
up there because again that Broncos loss, to be fair,
was in Denver, not another country, but certainly not in
Kansas City. If the Texans go up there and win,
I think it's because you're going to see a teen
type score on the Kansas City side of the ledger.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
They've scored twenty one or less four times, they're own four.
If they score twenty one or less against the Texans,
they will be on five.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
I think it's as simple as that. That's why I say,
what's the number one thing that Texans have to do
to beat them? I think it's not about what they
have to do to or what the they have to
make the Chiefs do or whatever. It's the Texans play
their defensive game. I think they should win.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
I'll get you an update on what we were talking
about to open up the show. A bunch of players
on a Wednesday practice for the Texans unavailable. Demiko Ryans
addressed this situation with those players just a few moments ago,
So we'll give you an update on that as we
get to the.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
Top of the hour.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
The simulcast portion of the rest of our day here
and a bunch of other things we have yet to
get to. Many of them are textans related. One of
them is rockets related, legendary rockets related and very surprising
if you hadn't heard overnight.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
We'll do all that all.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety, Sports Talks
seven to ninety and now on Space City Home Network
simulcast underway in that vein, as we mentioned at bottom
of the hour, we will be joined by Astros Executive
VP and General Council Giles Kibbi to talk about the
Space City Home Network plus app that has just been

(45:42):
released and all the ways it's going to help you
check out all of the Rockets in ASTROS games that
you maybe wouldn't have otherwise or couldn't in a different way.
It's very fantastic new development right here on this network
and we're looking forward to having that conversation with him.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
At the bottom of the hour.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
We've talked a lot about the Texans what they've got
to do to go into Kansas City this weekend on
Sunday Night football. By the way, I don't know if
I'm probably the only person I was like, oh yeah,
that's the Sunday night game. This whole time, I was like,
all right, and get ready for that noon kickoff in
Kansas City. It's gonna be awesome. No, that's the primetime
game and all that comes with it, all the pomp

(46:21):
and circumstances.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Well, what it comes with it is the lack of
the sun to keep you warm. So it's probably even
colder for this kickoff than it would have been otherwise
at noon. But we'll awake the actual useful weather report
a little bit further on into the week to see
what it might be like and how those conditions will be.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
We'll hear from Demiko a little bit on the cold weather.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
But he also addressed those players that I mentioned earlier
that did not practice today, Kamari Laster, Will Anderson Junior.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
What he marks.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Specifically, He did say we'll see how the week goes,
but indicated that they should all be fine and the
expectation is that they would be active and available for
the game. Dinny Goo Autry and Trent Brown to other players,
that will be a little bit, we'll wait and see
where things are. But as I mentioned in the opening segment,
those players have missed practice time before over the couple
of weeks these last few weeks, and in Brown's case,

(47:08):
he has then gone out and started and played every stap.
In an Autrey's case, he's gone out and played his
normal role as a rotational defensive lineman and elite field
goal blocker. So I suspect we're in the same boat
on those two as well. But like I said, Wednesday,
no a little bit. Thursday usually know a little bit more,
and then the status report we will have that on Friday.

(47:31):
Bigger things are the other parts of it. They can
manage in every other way, but obviously the magnitude of
the player is how much it affects them. And when
Will Anderson Junior is not a part of this team,
obviously they're worse. I don't think that will be anything
they'll have to concern themselves with. With one other thing
I never mentioned about last week's game because we talk

(47:52):
about it from a team standpoint all the time.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
How do you slow down an offense?

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Well, if your defense gets them off the field and
then you're offense stays on the field forever, well, that's
a great way to neutralize an offense. Last week, that
was nine series is all that the Indianapolis Colts got,
and one of them was given to them immediately after
a turnover on downs when the first play you had
it back was a turnover. They only had three possessions
in the second half. They scored on two of the three.

(48:18):
They only scored sixteen points in the game. They just
did not simply have the ball very much. So obviously
that means they didn't have a lot of plays, a
lot of snaps. Well, that means your defensive players didn't
have a lot of plays, a lot of snaps. It
was a thirty four snap game for both Will Anderson
Junior and daneil Hunter's.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
A that's a light. Their percentage was the same.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
They played roughly the same number of snaps from a
percentage standpoint they would play in any other game.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
But when their play count is so low as a team.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Talking about the Colts offense, it's just that many more
plays they didn't have to be on the field for.
Hopefully that continues to help them make the way through
the final five weeks five games of the season as
healthy as they've been through the first twelve. Neither of
those plays, says uh missed time, and hopefully that continues.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, I of all the names that you we mentioned
at the top, you know that you had tweeted out
that you didn't see a practice what he marks to me,
it was just the one that I would have the most.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Really, that's why.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
And and again you don't know until closer to game
time and all that kind of stuff he's playing.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
That's exactly that's what I was getting to. But you know,
Will Anderson also had an event yesterday. He seemed fine.
You saw him. I was not at the event, but yes,
I saw him through the magic of video. He didn't
seem to be limping. Well, he doesn't have a hurt leg.
People can limp with hurt chests. Then it was more
of a swaggy walk. He wasn't in a sling.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
No.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Uh yeah, I don't worry about any of these guys.
And again, wood he marks.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
I know, Nick Chubb's the guy that ran the touchdown
in but what he marks as you're starting running back,
what he marks is your guy that's gonna have the
majority of the snaps, even if he doesn't play the
first snap of offense.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
But he does. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
I mean, like I said, this is about four weeks
in now. They made that switch. It's very clear. There's
no debating it. That's not you know, there's a one
and there's a two. He both starts and gets the
majority of the reps, and if he's not hurt, he
gets an even larger majority of the reps. He's he's
their number one running back. He doesn't come out in
automatic passing situations. He shouldn't come out literally ever for Dara,
but he still does occasionally. But he's a good pass protector,

(50:25):
He's a good runner, good pass catcher. He's their number
one running back. Nick Chubb has been as effective as
his backup as he was as the starter, but he
could argue he's maybe been more effective as the backup
because he's on the field less, and it seems like
that maybe has kept him fresher. Woody Chubb got the
final five carries of the game. One of them was

(50:46):
for nine yards and got him the first down. The
other were for nothing. So it's kind of hard to
put all that into his three point four yards per carry.
We love what he marks, right, everybody thinks he's a
great pick. Great addition, this is great. Three point six
yards to carry is awful, by the way, but I
don't put it on Woody, but that's just what he
has produced this year.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
But he does need to have what is considered a
good game for him. As we just talked about the
standards we're talking about here, in order for the Texans
to win this game, I think because you're gonna have
to score points no matter what.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
I don't think his performance indicates whether they will win
or lose. Well the traditional oh, set up the run
so that you can set up the pass.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
I would say there are two games where he's been really,
really good, and one of them doesn't matter. It was
against Tennessee and the other one was against San Francisco.
He was extremely effective, had well over one hundred yards
of offense, and he's only done that twice all year.
That helped them do what they wanted to do offensively.
Scored twenty six points in that game against a good,

(51:49):
although banged up Niners defense. This four game winning streak
has been typical of kind of how this offense has gone.
He had forty four yards and two point four yards
of carry and total yards against Tennessee, where they couldn't
do anything. Their offense was bad against Tennessee for people
that forgot again, it was a Davis Mills game. They
won sixteen thirteen. He wasn't very good. The offense wasn't
very good. They got a three point victory last week.

(52:11):
He had sixty seven yards of offense on twenty touches.
That's not ideal. They scored twenty points and they won
two games in between, also wins. He was pretty effective
against Jacksonville and they still didn't do anything until the
fourth quarter. But he was out there on the field
as they were doing that, and he was a part
of that. They still ran the football in the fourth

(52:32):
quarter when they needed all those touchdowns to win, and
he was a huge part of that.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
But so was Nick.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
I just they can't. They're a bad running team. They've
been a bad running football team all year. I would
imagine if they had an awesome day, if there was
some day in their future, and maybe it's Sunday where
they run for one hundred and fifty yards as a team,
or one of the two running backs busts out for
an eighty ninety hundred yard day, I would say, yeah,
I would, they're gonna win that game. But if they're

(52:58):
not reliant on it to win or else they'd have
three wins.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Yeah, I look, Nico Collins needs to have a Nico
Collins game. You need to get something from the tight
end position, which I think you will because I think
Dalton Schultz is like quietly having a much better season
than last year, which isn't saying much.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
I mean the bar's what it's saying is he's been there, right,
He's been on the field all season long.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Look at every other position. Caide's been out most of
the year.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Obviously, I don't have a second tight end because they
wouldn't throw the ball to Harrison Brant now he's on
ir Jordan's Yeah, you've had your wide receivers. Nico's been
out there all but one game. Christian Kirk's been hurt
almost as much as he's been healthy. Now, Jayden Higgins
been available to you all year, but you didn't use
him until like the fifth or sixth week of the season.
Jalen Knowle's been available to you, but you hate him

(53:52):
and he's never your special team guy. Yeah, most electric
player they have on special teams. One of the most
electric special teams return men in the entire league this year,
but don't use them on offense.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Schultz has been there.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
And during the Mills portion of this season, he needed
him and he used him, and I don't think that
it was unseen by CJ. And I think he'll probably
feel the same way. Over his final five games. It
looked like he was more cognizant of what we can do,
but he also recognized the other part of it. Higgins,

(54:25):
Schultz and Collins, that's your passing game. That's what they
should be focused on. That's what they were focused on
last week. I think Hutch is close to being a
part of that, and it's why CIJ had a successful
day throwing the football. Those are basically the only guys.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
He threw to.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Going back to Noel, why do you think they have
someone who's committing offensive malpractice by not using him on offense?

Speaker 3 (54:46):
Not really sure because we've asked them that publicly and
the answers they give are non answers. Why do you
not trust him? Or is there a trust factor? Are
their routes being run? You know, they say all the
right things about how much they love what he can do,
but they just don't play him. Last week it was
isn't even a hymn thing. He and Christian Kirk saw
one target. Christian Kirk was on the field for thirty

(55:07):
seven snaps. I believe he wasn't targeted even one time,
so the slot position was basically an unused They were
just dummy routes the entire game. So it wasn't even
a Knowle issue. But I'm a little surprised. I feel
like he can get it. He would get open anytime
he's out there, even as a rookie and watching him,
that's what it seems like he's doing, and they've just

(55:29):
they've gone a different direction. He just gets very few snaps.
And remember our conversation yesterday with Nate Tice, that was
the part of the draft where he said, well.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
His comp for Knowle was Kirk exactly. So they're on
the same team.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
So they're having a hard time figuring out how to
utilize both of them when they're both active. In effect,
last week they utilized neither of them in the passing game.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
It is interesting, and we are we're opening to here
from Demico Ryans and CJ. Stroud at some point through
out the shows they've are well, Dimiko has already spoken
with the media.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
We'll get to that in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
We will also again, as we mentioned, we're going to
get to that conversation with Giles Kibbi with the Astros.
But when we come back, something that wex mentioned last segment,
or I guess it was earlier this segment there is
I don't know what's going on with the Clippers as
it pertains to a former Rocket, actually two former rockets,
if you want to be technical about it. But we'll

(56:25):
discuss that next because literally something happened in the dead
of night that we need to talk about. Were you
doing your traditional I don't sleep at night thing so
that you saw the Chris Paul News Live when it happened.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
No, I'm not Lou Williams. Well is that?

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Wait, explain that please.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Lou Williams was on his pod with Chandler and others
earlier today and as he was describing the situation, a
former Clipper and a former Rocket said, I don't know why,
but I was up when all this went down. I'm
in Atlanta. The Clippers are in Atlanta. So for those
that woke up this morning to Chris Paul posted this
on his IG page, and Lawrence Frank has released a
statement and yeah, Chris Paul. The return to the La

(57:07):
Clippers was short lived. He posted on his own IG,
I'm being sent home and the Clippers confirmed he is
being sent home and that they were on the road,
so they basically said we're parting ways. His tenure this
time around as a player is over. He's not gonna
play again. They haven't actually finalized what exactly will be
the departure. Is it just a release, a wave, a

(57:30):
buy out, a trade, whatever the case is. He's not
playing any more basketball games for the LA Clippers. Quite honestly,
I'm not sure where he would play any games elsewhere either.
Clearly is not the player he once was. Although his
value to his most recent teams was largely you know, celebrated.
This is a great addition to the Spurs. He's been very,

(57:51):
very helpful here. You know, his time in Phoenix was
looked at very very favorably. Time at Oklahoma City was
looked at very favorably. His time here was also looked
at favorly favorably. His departure was different, and it really
was not on him. But when lou Williams was talking
about what he was talking about today, and I'm sure
most of it is true, it sounded like he was
trying to figure out how to say what he knew

(58:13):
from the people inside the organization. Without being too descriptive
and over the top or just kind of giving it
all away. It just sounded like what happened was, here's
a player who barely plays, and he's trying to make
players accountable for how they're playing, and obviously taking upon
himself as much as he can, but he's not on
the court, and criticism of teammates, criticism of players, criticism

(58:36):
of management, more criticism of upper management, and I think
at some point it just became more than they wanted
to have from somebody who wasn't contributing to the team,
even if he's probably right, yeah, and that's definitely how
he is. He was the same way here and the
same way in every other place. When a player like
that is on the court, playing good basketball, helping your

(58:58):
team play better basketball, winning basketball, you're going to pretty
much listen to everything he has to say, or at
least reluctantly listen to everything he has to say. The
team in LA was in a totally different situation, and
I just think that it was not a It felt
like an awful fit from the beginning. By the way,
and now it's proven to be well that.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Sean's reporting that he wasn't even on speaking terms with Tyleru,
and what is Tyleru do for the Clippers?

Speaker 2 (59:24):
He's the head coach, got it.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
So then another former head coach, Lawrence Frank, who is
their president of Basketball Ops, said that it didn't come
from one isolated incident and at the sides had multiple
conversations before Paul was informed he would no longer be
a part of the team, that his leadership style clashed
with Tyron lou and the Clippers. He was vocal in

(59:50):
holding management, coaches and players accountable, like you just kind
of mentioned there, and that his style had become disruptive. Now,
Lawrence Frank's quote said, this decision had nothing to do
with one incident or one meeting that did or did
not happen. Some of our business, respectfully have to keep
in house. But this just didn't come to one incident,

(01:00:13):
one meeting. It just wasn't the right fit. We had
conversations with Chris throughout even before we started call it
the onboarding process, and throughout, so this isn't like an
isolated one conversation decision.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Those or these are fluid throughout.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
What I heard about his time here in Houston, which
is all I can speak to was the same type
of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
He's vocal, he's not afraid to share.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
His opinion and that that can grind or grate on
people eventually, and eventually it really got on one guy's
nerves who was the de facto GM. His name was
James Harden, and that's how you wind up with still,
in my opinion, the worst Rockets trade in the history
of the organization, because we're still paying for it right now.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
No doubt, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
And I'm sure, I mean, it's not a coincidence as
James Harden as on this particular team. We're still talking
about different team, same two players, and ultimately them not
seeing Eyed Eye may or may not be.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
A part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
I'm sure it's at least as much of a part
of it as him not seeing Chris not seeing eyed
Ie with a bunch of other players, And even in
Lawrence's statements, it's not the end of the world. Usually,
when a player on the team wants people in the
organization himself, players included, to be accountable, and Chris does
want that, and he is doing that badfit because he

(01:01:31):
was doing it and it was crossing the coach, not
the accountability part, but I'm sure there I would guess
there are instances where the coach and the coaching staff
are pushing for this to happen, and that's happened, and
we need you to do this and here's how you
do that, and Chris might have said, I don't know
why we're doing that, or this isn't the right way
to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
He's basically a coach.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
I would normally say he's a coach on the floor,
but he's a coach on the practice floor for the Clippers.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
He doesn't play all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Right, yeah, kind of like Tree Rawlins at the end
with the magic although he was kind of getting some minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Yeah, but they wanted him there to coach. Yeah, they
don't want Chris Paul there to coach. And for those
of you who are like, well, bring him back to
Houston again, same with James. There's a reason he's not
any you know, he's not here anymore. Well, why would
you bring him back to Houston just as a coach.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
It's not the place.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
So you'd bring him back to Houston to coach because
you're lacking what in the coaching depart exactly, You're not
lacking a coach you're not lacking direction, you're not lacking culture,
and you're not lacking discipline and accountability. So his value
to this team would be zero because you don't want
him on the court.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Right And that would be the only actual plausible reason
is that, well you you don't have Fred van Vliet,
so we need a vet out there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Except for it's not a problem right now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Hey, Chris, slow it down, right, Well, the paysdown a
little bit. You're going too fast like saying all that,
Chris Paul. We know where his value is. Is there
a home for him somewhere in the NBA? Is he's
He is definitely not going to say, look, if this
is what I have to do to continue playing in
the NBA. Basically that this would be shut your mouth

(01:03:06):
and not say what you know to be true and
not hold your teammates accountable and just come to practice
and go home. Then he's not gonna play anymore because
he won't want to set to be around a team
that doesn't want to utilize what he has to say.
The Clippers became that team.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
I think another team would would be in the same
boat because he can't help teams on the court anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
I wonder if he does end up going into coaching
ironically because of this kind of thing, because it sounds
to me like he's being described the way other players
and organizations over the years have described Jeff Van Gundy,
or who's also last staff or oh my gosh, why

(01:03:53):
am I drawing a blank on the guy that nicks fired,
who screams a lot, who needs to let.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Go of the komom Thibodeaux.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
Yeah, those of the two names that come to mind
when I hear how they're describing Chris Paul's leadership style.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
I don't know that it's the negativity or the screaming,
and that's so much on Van Gundy. I think he's
a good coach, right, but it's what the vibe of
your team when Jeff's around negativity very business. He breathes
negativity and that's what he feeds. This is how we're
gonna get good when you realize how bad this is.
This is oh my god, this is the worst squist
practice ever. Get out of here, worst game ever. I'm

(01:04:28):
not even talking about it. Like there's a lot of
negativity to try to get the most out of their players.
I don't know what his coaching style would be. I
don't suspect it would be quite like that. I actually
think he would be like, I don't know. I think
JJ Reddicks done a good job in LA. I think
he's been a good coach for the group that he
Lebron doesn't. That's not how a great out of coach
is good or not nice. I shouldn't nobody should. Same

(01:04:49):
with Tyron lu by the way, I think Chris would
be similar in that his expectations of what his players
should do would be through the roof because he's done
it all before. JJ's different basketball player, clearly, but he's
done all of that stuff before. He's been at all
the practice he's been at fifteen years of NBA practice before.
He's very close to the game for how little time
he's spent away from it. And if Chris were to

(01:05:11):
do that in a similar time frame, I think he'd
feel like, I know this era of player, I've been
in it, and this is what I expect you to do.
This is how we're going to win. I think it
would grate on him tremendously, just like we see with JJ.
He doesn't hide any of it. I love it. His
emotions are exactly what you see, he's ticked off at
his team, and he calls the timeout. He screams about
them in the timeout, and then he berates them to

(01:05:32):
the media afterwards publicly, nothing he hasn't done privately. I
think Chris would have a hard time not being that
same tack.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
I think Chris would also if he were a head coach,
for example. This is why it's so difficult for quote
unquote superstars to be successful in that position after they're
done playing, because their expectation of their players is to
be like you were. This is why Larry Bird was
such a good I can't believe that Larry Bird's coaching resume,

(01:06:03):
as brief as it was. I'm not saying it competed
with his playing resume, because that's just stupid to say
for anybody to say. But it wasn't anything to sneeze at.
And for him to be a guy that was I mean,
he's around the all time great and he was a
great head coach. He nearly beat Jordan and the Bulls
the last year. He was disclose Game seven and all

(01:06:24):
that stuff. I don't think Chris Paul would.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Be that way. Yeah, a lot of.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
Not very good feelings about this, this is your franchise, Goat,
and this is how he's being treated.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
This is no way for a star to go out, and.

Speaker 3 (01:06:36):
It's probably fault of both sides to some form or fashion,
but I would tend to agree this would not be
an ideal way for a player headed to the Hall
of Fame to see his final NBA season.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
Go I think we should switch gears.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Coming up next segment and talk about a little technology
as it pertains to Space City Home Network. Giles Kibbi,
he's the Astros executive vice president and general Council. He's
going to join us to talk about the Space City
Home Network plus app.

Speaker 6 (01:07:04):
That is straight Ahead, the a team on Sports Talk
seven ninety seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
Halfway through our number two Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton
here with you as per usual each and every weekday
afternoon both here on Sportstock seven ninety and via the
simulcast on Space City Home Network three to six each
and every weekday afternoon, your home for Astros baseball and
Rockets basketball. That's us here at Sportstock seven ninety that

(01:07:32):
is also Space City Home Network. They are the broadcast
home for the Astros and for the Rockets and to
that end, big announcement today from Space City Home Network
with SCCHN Plus, where direct to consumer is now available.
And to that end, Giles Kibbi, who joins us from
the Astros, their executive VP and General Council, also the

(01:07:52):
president of the Astros Golf Foundation. Giles, we certainly appreciate
the time this afternoon spending here with us and our
listeners and our viewers about this venture that I think
it's pretty clear you guys have probably already seen today's feedback.
Not to mention the questions prior to today, this is
something that the fans of the Rockets Astros at Space
City Home Network have been eagerly anticipating, probably as much

(01:08:14):
as you guys have been eagerly anticipating its launch.

Speaker 13 (01:08:18):
Yeah, we're really excited about it. We've been working on
it for a long time. It's something that we've been
focused on for several years. Unfortunately, while we didn't own
the network, there wasn't anything we could do about it.
It was one of the reasons we acquired the network
and now we're going to be able to reach a
lot of fans that prior to this we're not able

(01:08:41):
to watch the games, and so this is a great
day for the Astros and Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
No, it always feels like, you know, that is the
number one priority is to serve the customer, in this
case to fans of these teams, and it is it's
just another avenue to be able to get a lot
of games in a very venient plays. Can you just
kind of talk about, you know, what went into this

(01:09:05):
kind of decision in a admittedly a very complex and
I think fascinating time in the sports broadcasting world when
it comes to this topic.

Speaker 13 (01:09:16):
Yeah, you know, as I mentioned earlier, we didn't have
control before. We couldn't we could not do anything to
go direct to consumer to stream games. We started this
network with a linear model. It was a cable only.
No one was streaming at the time. We had long
term affiliation agreements, agreements with our cable providers, and a

(01:09:40):
lot of those agreements, some of them weren't even didn't
even contemplate streaming because it wasn't happening at that time
in two thousand and thirteen. So we had a lot
of work to do with those affiliates, and they're great
partners of ours, and so we worked closely with them
for a while after we required the network to try

(01:10:01):
to make this streaming thing happen, and it took a
little bit of time. It took a lot of work.
Our guys over at Space City, Jim Colsanto leading that group,
they did a wonderful job and working on the technological
aspect of it. You know, we took over this network,
we bought it from Warner Brothers in late to twenty
twenty three, and you know, we didn't have anything over here.

(01:10:24):
So we've kind of put this thing together in the
last year and a half and it's been a.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
Lot of work.

Speaker 13 (01:10:30):
It's something that we've kind of kept quiet, but we've
been working hard at it. It was the only way
that we knew we were going to reach all of
our fans, and so now we're providing them with an
easy access to watch our games and it's going to
be great.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
Jim and John and Chris on the technological side, all
great people over there. We've got a great opportunity working
with them as well. I guess, so quite simply the
opportunity for people to have access to this just a
brief explainer on what they can do to you know,
get involved with se h N plus.

Speaker 13 (01:11:01):
Yeah, it's it's really easy. You know, the best way
to do it is just to go on to s
e h N plus plus dot com, not the symbol,
and you can subscribe right there.

Speaker 3 (01:11:13):
You can do it today.

Speaker 13 (01:11:14):
We have a bunch of people who have already subscribed,
so it's live now. It starts with the Rockets tonight.
You can also get it on your Apple app. You
can get it through your Android app, so we're making
it available in many different platforms. We're trying to make
it as easy as possible for our fans to subscribe

(01:11:35):
and to to get access.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
To the games.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
People can subscribe through the app itself without the need
for a cable or satellite provider, or if they do
have that cabler satellite provider, they can get the games
through that through the s c h N plus app. Now,
we did have a question on one of your posts
earlier day about the big news. One of our listeners
was saying, is this the full network or just the games?
Can I watch the A Team with Adam Clanton and

(01:11:59):
Adam and your network politely responded with yes, you have
full access to the full twenty four to seven channel lineup.
But as you mentioned, if Rockets Basketball tonight. We've been
talking hot Stove this entire period of time, a little
longer than usual for the astros, but there's no shortage
of interest in this and the game is available as
soon as tonight.

Speaker 13 (01:12:21):
Yeah, we're live, We're.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Ready to go.

Speaker 13 (01:12:23):
And one thing I'll add to that is, not only
can people who don't have Comcast, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream or
one of our current affiliates, they can go onto the
app and now subscribe, but people that do have that.
So if you have your cable through Comcasts or direct TV,
you'll be able to go to your cable provider or

(01:12:47):
satellite provider and authenticate with them and you get the
app for free. So those subscribers who are paying for
it on the cable side are not going to have
to then pay again on the linear side, definitely, they're
not going to have to pay again on the digital side.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
Right access through your cable provider, through the app, through
Space City Home Network can give you again you're you're
already you have the games there, so now you can
get them through the app or through that site. As
you mentioned, number of different ways for people to have
that here from from both teams obviously, from the astro side,
yourself and from Jim Crane. I assume that the excitement
of just now, like you said, and like Ac mentioned,

(01:13:25):
just putting the opportunity for the fans to get the
access they have clearly been looking for. I imagine you're
you're very excited that we're here.

Speaker 13 (01:13:34):
Yeah, we weren't able to get to about seventy five
percent of our market prior to today, so it's.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
A big day for us.

Speaker 13 (01:13:41):
It's going to give us a lot of reach where
we're going to get to fans, you know, all over
all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana. So it's
going to be great for our brand.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
If the manager, Joe Aspata said multiple times this offseason
that there's a chip on their shoulder that this team,
these players, they are postseason players. This is what they expect,
this is what they deserve. Would management, you and Jim
and everybody else feel the same way.

Speaker 13 (01:14:12):
Absolutely, you know, we've we're so proud of everything that
we've done here over the past. We just had eight
years in a row so of some really great success,
so we're very proud of that. And then Jim gave
a speech to us at a Christmas luncheon yesterday about
you know, setting out the playoffs is not something he

(01:14:33):
plans on doing again. So we're excited about the off season.
We're excited about what fans are going to be able
to watch. Come in late March, and we're going to
fight to way to get right back in there. Get Another,
Get Another Street.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Going sounds good.

Speaker 3 (01:14:48):
And you mentioned late March, which also means we'll need
to get you on again in advance of the Open,
the golf tournament back in Houston again, So very much
looking forward to that March twenty third through twenty six
that will place. You're obviously extremely involved with that with
the Astros Golf Foundation as the president, Giles, very busy.
We certainly appreciate the time today, and I think most

(01:15:09):
of our listeners and viewers appreciate the opportunity they now
have in front of them via Space City Home Network.

Speaker 13 (01:15:14):
Plus well, thank you very much for appreciate the sport.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
You got it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
We're right here with you. We will utilize it as well.
Look forward to catching up with you again real soon,
Giles Kibby. The Astros, with the launch of Space City
Home Network direct to consumer.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
Availability is the A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:15:30):
Appreciate Giles kbby spending a few moments with us saying
you to help us spread the word.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
The launch has arrived.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
Customers that are looking for direct access to Space City
Home Network, which includes Rockets basketball games, includes Astros baseball games,
all the programming and extras that go with it. Also
includes the A Team each and every weekday afternoon. You
now have that with SCCHN plus. Can subscribe monthly or
by the year, or as we noted with Giles via

(01:16:00):
your cable service provider satellite provider. If you have access
to the network already, you should be able to go
directly through the app and have it accessible when you
put that information into authentic Kate and you are good
to go to watch it via sc HN plus. You
can go right there to s c h N p
l US dot com for more information on making that

(01:16:22):
all happen for you. Rockets and Kings tonight, Rockets and
Suns on Friday, and information about that game that I
think we could see coming based on what happened in
the most recent game for the Suns. They will be
without Devin Booker in addition to being without Jalen Green
for this game against the Rockets. He was hurt in
their lopsided victory over the Lakers earlier this week, and

(01:16:45):
per Shamsherania, at the groin strain, we'll have him out
for at least a week. They will reevaluate him in
a week and then see where things are. Dylan Brooks
had already taken a pretty large role with the team,
same as he did here in terms of trying to
create the type of basketball team, effort, culture, et cetera

(01:17:06):
that the Rockets wanted to create. Doing the very same
thing there, the same thing he did in Memphis, the
same thing he does everywhere he plays, because that's why
teams want him on the team and shouldn't be bad
mouthing him on the way out unjustifiably like the Grizzlies did.
The Sons won't and the Rockets didn't. Whenever his son's tenure,
if it ever comes to an end, but he's also
playing good basketball. I brought something up yesterday about Dylan Brooks,

(01:17:29):
but never really got to follow through on it because
I couldn't find who had said it or if it's
just some random person on Twitter, or just what it was.
But it was a thought about it looks like, we're
gonna need to have Dylan Brooks as part of our
most improved player conversation this year, and someone had quote
tweeted that and basically seconded that, and every sport's a

(01:17:51):
little different. Basketball is probably the one that, to me,
is the easiest to differentiate between most improved player and
plays on team that asks more from him. That's what
Dylan Brooks is doing. He's playing more minutes of value.
He's being asked to score more value offensively. Excuse me,

(01:18:13):
He played plenty of minutes here that had value, but
they weren't putting the ball in his hands saying all right, go,
let's watch Dylan create the suns? Are they were already
doing that before Davin Booker went down, and now without
without both starting backcourt players, will just continue even longer.
But is he that is he an improved player? Is

(01:18:33):
Dylan Brooks playing better basketball this year? Or are they
just saying, hey, man, in your thirty minutes for us,
take twenty shots. In your thirty minutes for Emay and
the Rockets, you take fourteen shots. He averaged just under
twelve shots per game last year with the Rockets and
shot forty three percent from the floor thirty nine point
seven percent from deep this year, the numbers kind of

(01:18:54):
the opposite. He's forty six percent from the floor, so
much better inside the arc, but also noticeably outside the arc.
He's a thirty two percent shooter on threes this year
for Phoenix, at a much higher clip, almost eight per game,
but he's scoring twenty two points per game, by far,
the highest scoring average of his career. He's playing almost

(01:19:15):
the exact same minutes as he did here in Houston,
but he's taking six more shots per game. Guess where
his usage rate is, which references how often basically the
ball is in his hands. It's at twenty nine point one.
It was at seventeen point seven in his Rocket's two
year career.

Speaker 2 (01:19:36):
Is he better? Is he improved?

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
Or is the offensive talent that's been on display for
almost his entire career now being asked to show itself
a little bit more because they don't have better players
than him in the game offensively for most of his minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
Now he is their best offensive player with their current group.

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
Like a lot of guys that become I don't want
to say pigeon holed, but it's they're a role player
and they get this NBA level reputation of this guy's
not a score that a lot of these guys got
to the NBA because when they were at the previous
level wherever it was, one of the things they did
really well was put the ball in the basket.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
And you've seen this over the course of time, but
it was funny.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
Last season we were doing a postgame interview with Dylan
after the Rockets had won and he had had a
particularly good offensive game. He was the leading three point
shooter for the team last year. As we've talked about
ad nauseum here, and I kind of brought up the
fact that he's got that reputation as a defensive specialist,
and you know, its offense is not usually what you

(01:20:43):
think of with him.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
And he absolutely bristled at it. And I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
I wouldn't, you know, taking an offense, but you don't
think of Dylan Brooks as what he is this year,
and I do think it's out of necessity. And I
also think that one of the best compliments you can
pay a guy like him is that when the Devin
Bookers and the Jalen Greens of the world come back,
he'll blend right in wherever he needs to. That's why
the aforementioned pot shots taken at him on the way

(01:21:09):
out the door in Memphis were so stupid then and
got dumber as time went on and continue to to
this very day.

Speaker 2 (01:21:17):
With what he's doing right now.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
He did not have his best offensive season in his
final season there, and was ascending every year until that season,
so it was even more stark to see, like they
were like, well, this is player is doing this and
this and better and better, and then it wasn't quite
as good. But obviously he was not the reason that that. Well,
basically now the whole franchise is blowing up itself. But

(01:21:38):
as an offensive player, he is better this year. He's
doing some things a little bit better. He's just not
shooting a three pointer nearly as well. But he's a
career forty six percent two point field goal shooter. He's
at fifty seven percent now. That probably means you know,
you look at the shots he was making against Houston.
These are the same difficult shots he's always taken. They're
going in a little bit more off and those are

(01:22:00):
tough fadeaways. Those are in traffic drives. He doesn't usually
have a lot of space on his shots, whether at
the rim, in the mid range, or wherever, and he's
found a little bit more of a successful way to
finish them. And I'm not saying this to say anything
negative about the play at all. I'm trying to be
as clear as possible. He's been awesome this year. They've

(01:22:20):
needed him to be, They're going to continue to ask
him to be, and he's showing that when given the opportunity,
he can absolutely handle a bigger offensive workload, which he
probably could have done everywhere else he's been had that
been what they wanted him to do. So I don't
know that I would call him the most improved player
or be considering him for the most improved player. They're

(01:22:41):
just using him more. They're just asking him to do
the things he's always done more, not better, but more,
because I can't look at a guy like that and
not look at like Alex Sar in Washington, a second
year player, or right here in Houston, like Reed Shepard.
I watched him play basketball. He wasn't very good at
it last year. Even he starts where he's clearly looked

(01:23:01):
a little better, So you could kind of see, well,
the better opportunities maybe he plays better well. He's shooting
the ball at such a high clip. He's defending so
much more successfully this year, he's creating more steals. He's
just flat out better at playing NBA basketball this year.
That's what an improved player is to me. I don't vote,
but if I were a voter, that's what I would
be looking at. And doesn't have to be a young player,

(01:23:24):
but oftentimes they're the ones who improve their game the
most from one offseason to the next.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
Yeah, I look what Reed is doing right now and
what I think he's going to continue to do at
like game by game basis. In fact, I'm looking forward
to seeing him destroy the Kings tonight because I think
he will. He'll get a lot of open shots from
the perimeter, especially, but he's not a one dimensional player
and you need guys like that, and the Rockets have
certainly benefited from that in a season in which they

(01:23:50):
do not have Fred van Vliet.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
We will leave it at that four o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
Coming up next to Miko Ryans and some of his
thoughts on the upcoming game against the Chiefs is the
A Team Sports Talk seven nineties, Space City Home Network,
four o'clock hour underway. A lot of football this hour
to be discussed, both of the pro and college variety guys,
Lane Kiffen. Thing is just this is like manna from

(01:24:16):
heaven for the talking heads, and I'd say sixty percent
of it is actual football related. None of it's football related.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
Okay, I was being nice. I mean so much like
just this.

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
The I guess new stuff today is that the AD
has gone on the airwaves and said, yeah, though some
of the things that he said is not true. Like
when he found out he wouldn't be able to coach
the team was Sunday, the day it all became final
that he was leaving. As in the only reason I've
been able to come to this decision today and as
gotten to this point, and I would be coaching the team,

(01:24:51):
but the ad, Keith Carter, says we're not gonna be
able to do that. Well, the first I heard of
that was Sunday. Carter went on the airwaves today it
said that that is not true. So I'm understanding that
that wasn't the first time he heard. Is that what
you're saying, that's correct, what he said is inaccurate.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Yeah, it's it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
Really matter from a Lane standpoint anymore, I don't think
most exits are kind of ugly.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
They don't have to be.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
You know, this particular coaching cycle, all the coaches in
the SEC that are new, none of their exits were ugly.
Golish's exit wasn't ugly. Will Stein's exit from Oregon's a
position O C position not ugly. You know, obviously, the
job that John Sumrall's taking and who he's leaving behind

(01:25:34):
not ugly. The higher profile job, the highest profile job
in the conference that became available, and then the second
highest profile job, arguably the one he held along with Florida. Yeah,
it's a little bit different, and understandably so. But today's
National Signing Day, and I think I know LSU doesn't

(01:25:54):
care at all about We talked about Lane Kevin three
times today. They don't care about any of that. And
the teams that will be playing LSU other than Ole Miss,
they don't either. They only care about what does the
recruiting class look like, and how many players that we
might not have expected to have are coming, how many
players that we did expect to have aren't. And that's

(01:26:15):
really the story for all the other schools, even here,
and even at Texas obviously U of H with the
prize recruit Key Henderson making it official earlier today for
the Cougars signing and all that that means to them,
Dia Belle making it official with Texas, two of the
best quarterbacks in the country making it official.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
That's all LSU cares about.

Speaker 3 (01:26:34):
And the whole angle of them changing from what they've
been dissatisfied with Brian Kelly and what they were unable
to do on the football field to what they are
having Lane Kiffen there. Like LSU's offense has been an
embarrassment recently, the same offense that Joe Burrow was setting
records with the same university, I should say not the

(01:26:55):
same offense with the same university that's churning out NFL talent.

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
I mean just got to the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
He was just there, and just before that, justin Jefferson
just got to the NFL, and we'd just run through
the laundry list of elite offensive players that have made
their way to the NFL from LSU and the Brian
Kelly offense that he left behind was an absolute joke.
Why can't you run the football, Why can't you throw
the football? Why can't you score? They just hired Lane Kiffen.

(01:27:23):
They're gonna have one of the best offices in the
SEC immediately.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
That's why he's there. Well that we haven't said one
word about that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:31):
And recruiting even though tied together. Well yeah, but like
the recruiting was fine with Brian Kelly. The talent on
campus at LSU hasn't been a problem for fifteen years,
for any longer than five minutes for the Oh this
recruiting class wasn't number five?

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
What was it eleven?

Speaker 13 (01:27:50):
Oh? This?

Speaker 3 (01:27:51):
I mean, there's no talent issue there. That's why Brian
Kelly's fired. They have players he can't coach. We can't
win not that conference difference. Well, he's coached everywhere else.
And why I thought you would Look. I said this
the other day and I meant it. I thought he
was over ere when he got there. I mean, I
don't know what what kind of coach you're looking for
to to do before he arrives in the SEC. It's

(01:28:14):
about as successful as you could get. I mean, there
weren't national titles in his back pocket.

Speaker 1 (01:28:19):
Maybe it's because Notre Dame to me always feels like
they're overrated. Anyways, a lot of seasons, not all of them.
They're just a year to year it's different.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
This year was one of the weakest schedules they've played,
just because the same teams that are on it were
not very good. I mean, they roughly played the same
schedule every year some years. They obviously they don't play
A and M every year and so that enhanced their resume.
But they should absolutely be where they are this year.
They should be on the fringe. They should be wondering
if they're getting in. Last night's playoff committee commentary and

(01:28:48):
obviously rankings don't make it look like there's any real
scenario for the Texas Longhorns to get in. Hunter Gericek
wouldn't say it, but I think he's the numbers say
it all.

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
But you know, they said they'll re rank the teams
after all the games are played this weekending.

Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
You would not acknowledge it is impossible for certain teams
to make it in, but they clearly have to wait
to see what happens with the ACC title game. The
top twelve teams according to last night's rankings, well two
of them, at least from last night's rankings, will not
be in the playoffs because two teams outside the top
twelve will automatically qualify for this. We spent an entire

(01:29:26):
year of football season and all the time between the
last time they changed how they were going to put
the twelve team field together, not really complaining about what
everybody is complaining about right now. Well, if it's the
playoffs and you want the twelve best teams, why are
two Lane in North Texas playing for a spot? And
why is the ACC champion playing for the spot? They're

(01:29:46):
not among the top twelve teams. Why are we automatically
qualifying teams? Alabama and Georgia play their way in. Winner
gets in. If Alabama still deserves to get in because
they had to play Georgia twice, go ahead, let them in.
By and Texas Tech play your way in. Texas Tech
deserves to be in after beating BOYU a second time,
and they do, then let them in. If BYU deserves

(01:30:06):
to be in after beating Texas Tech for the first
time after playing them twice.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
We'll let them in.

Speaker 3 (01:30:12):
These texts are the Ohio State Indiana game, this is
one versus two, which we might not get in the
eleven games of the playoffs, and they're playing in a
conference title game that only matters in this regard. One
of them will be the number one seed in the tournament,
get a week off and play no home games, and
the other one will not be the number one seed

(01:30:34):
and very possibly slide to five.

Speaker 2 (01:30:36):
And get a home game.

Speaker 3 (01:30:38):
I don't know that they will, and maybe that's wrong,
but the twelve best teams in a twelve team playoff
are not going to be there.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
This is the system that they chose to move forward with.
Is Indiana about to get aggied in that? And I look,
I don't think either one of them have had a
fake good season. But we were talking about this Gordy
off the air the other day, especially in the case
of Indiana, which, by the way, anytime I see Indiana

(01:31:06):
football at the top of the rankings, I e.

Speaker 2 (01:31:09):
This season at last year and never yore.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
Yeah, it's still weird to me because I just think
of them as a basketball school.

Speaker 2 (01:31:17):
Same with Duke, not that Duke is like highly rated.

Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
No, Duke's not highly rated, not until after they went
on Saturday and go to the playoffs with their eight
and five record.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
There's just certain schools you look at certain ways. You
don't look at Kansas for football, you look at it
for basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:31:31):
That kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
They played one maybe they played three competitive games this year.
They beat an average Iowa team by five, they beat
a playoff bound Oregon team by ten, and they had
the miracle play late in the Penn State game to
win by three. And Penn State is a six and
six Bowl eligible team. They didn't play the best team

(01:31:55):
in the conference, Ohio State until the conference title game.
They didn't play the fourth best team in the conference,
USC didn't play the fifth best team in the conference, Michigan.
This is what happens when you put a billion teams
in one conference.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
Yeah, and since we're on the subject, I'll give them
the Ohio State loss, and I'll give them the Georgia loss.

Speaker 2 (01:32:16):
But let's just say Texas hadn't lost to Florida. They're
in right.

Speaker 3 (01:32:23):
That was one thing that was said last night. The
only loss to an Okay. This is what Hunter said
last night. There's seventeen total losses for the teams ranked
in the top fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Total.

Speaker 3 (01:32:35):
Among all those fifteen teams, sixteen of those losses came
against teams that are currently ranked or have been ranked
in the top twenty five this year their Top twenty five.
The only loss among them to an unranked team was
Texas's to Florida at Florida, and Hunter went on to
say Florida really dominated that game, held Texas a fifty
yards rushing to interceptions. So it's not that Texas played

(01:32:56):
Ohio State. It is Texas's lost to four Florida that's
holding them back. Now, I definitely take offense to the
fifty yards rushing because I think college football statistics in
this regard are absolutely stupid. If Arch Manning drops back,
runs around in a circle and gets sacked for twenty yards,
well your rushing total goes down by twenty yards.

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
Stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
They ran for almost ninety yards in the game, but
he can say they ran for fifty two because he
got sacked six times and lost thirty seven yards. He's
not wrong, that's what it says in the box score.
But counting rushing yards negative rushing yards or negative yards
via sack for a rush total, which is what college
football does, absolute insanity. So excuse the numbers, which in

(01:33:40):
this case allows for the committee to use them.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
Stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:33:44):
It's just dumb. They didn't run the ball, well, just
say that that's actually true. But he's right in the
biggest picture. Don't lose to Florida. Florida didn't beat hardly
anybody the entire season. You went to their building in
the SEC where we all know it's tough to win.
And their road schedule looks awful this year. Their road performances,
I should say non neutral site games. They won two

(01:34:07):
road games in overtime. They lost this game to Florida
and they won their other game.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
That's their whole road schedule, their true road schedule this year.
That's not very appealing to the committee. But there the
rest of that is awesome and over the top and
better than almost everybody in the field.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
But they're just not ignoring the rest.

Speaker 1 (01:34:25):
They would submit to you that their wins over you know,
A and M and such should should negate that.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
I guess yeah, and you Sarkes was if people were
arguing that they should negated, I'd be with them. And
then that goes back to the best twelve teams in
the country. The results have to matter. I'm not blind
and I'm not stupid. The results have to matter. But
I've also watched the games this year, just like the
committee is supposed to have. I don't think Texas is
one of the twelve bet teams in the country. I
think they're one of the ten best teams in the country,

(01:34:53):
maybe one of the best eight teams in the country.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
I think next year they will be.

Speaker 1 (01:34:58):
I'm okay with them missing it this year because I
understand the reasons why they're missing it this year, and
I don't think those reasons will I don't think there'll
be a problem next year because I think it'll be
a better team because I think Archie is gonna be
better because he's gonna play well all season.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
Instead of just like the second half. We shall see,
all right, we will continue on here.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
We're gonna actually hear from Demiko Ryans on this upcoming
game with the Kansas.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
City Chiefs, specifically, how about playing in the cold?

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
Are you afraid? Are you scared? Dimiko just kidding. He
wasn't asked that, but you'll hear what he had to
say next. Yeah, you think Tomiko Ryans is scared of anything, anything,
anything on the planet.

Speaker 3 (01:35:37):
I can't imagine what that might be. Probably not snakes.
Maybe one of those things that you're not expecting, like bears. No,
he's not afraid of a bear. Sharks maybe, but I'm
gonna say no on that too. But you know, like
something spiders or rats, snakes.

Speaker 1 (01:35:55):
Or his players watching his celebrations in college, He's not
afraid of that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:59):
I'm afraid of that.

Speaker 3 (01:35:59):
I mentioned that the other day that they had had
that Thursday night game that was actually something they did
in house, and so in house. They also then had
Demiko watching the reactions of the player's reactions to him
during his playing career, and he made sure to note
since we got into it yesterday and our good buddy
Ryan emailed us or posted the picture on social media

(01:36:20):
of him with hair. When Dimiko saw Kamara and Kaylen
wildly laughing about his baldness while in college, he said,
that was my choice.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
I shaved my head, my choice. I'm not bald. I
chose that airstyle. Uh when was what? Years?

Speaker 12 (01:36:38):
Were that?

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
Just kidding?

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
I don't really mean that question towards you specifically, but
I do think that MJ was the guy that, really,
at least from an athlete standpoint, across the board, not
just in the NBA, made it fashionable to just do
that even if you had hair, let alone, guys like,
for example, Clyde who had the what do you what

(01:37:03):
do you call that that hairline? Unfortunate Matt Thomas hairline
where it's around the sides, but it's really truly bald
on top. Mm hmm, Like there's bald, there's thinning on top,
you know. But when you once you're bald, you're bald.
And I mean Clyde look good doing that, MJ A
lot of guys, and then of course stone Cold comes

(01:37:23):
along and just kind of furthers it. I don't know,
people have ever since I took everything off up top,
people have tried to like insult me about it, and
I'm like, Okay, you're gonna have to like really try
a lot harder to get any sort of rise out
of me about that.

Speaker 2 (01:37:40):
I love being bald, but it suits to Miko. I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:37:47):
I mean, I can't imagine him because we saw the picture,
like you said, but this is the best version of him,
so to speak.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
Afraid of something football related, he is not afraid of
the cold, No, I don't think so.

Speaker 7 (01:37:59):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
He was asked playing in the cold because it will
be cold even if there's not precipitation, and this was
Dimiko's reaction to that earlier today.

Speaker 17 (01:38:07):
Yeah, this strategy for playing in the cold is not
to focus on it too much, right, It's it's a
mindset factory. You have three hours, no matter what the
weather is, matter what the temperature, you gotta go out
and play ball for three hours. So it should it
should be a factor for our guys.

Speaker 2 (01:38:25):
They're gonna have.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
All of the bells and whistles that a modern NFL
team has for that kind of thing. The insane. I'm
guessing we'll see the trench coats. I don't even know
if the Texans, like how often do they have to
bust those out? You mentioned the coldest game in franchise
history had to have been that Chicago game, like over
a decade ago.

Speaker 2 (01:38:44):
Now it was like, I think the NFL has all
available clothing lines.

Speaker 1 (01:38:52):
Yeah, theaters, the heated benches, the little hand warmer things,
all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:38:59):
Plus yeah, the guys on the bench. Yeah, but like, oh,
the Texans aren't used to play CJ went to school
at Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (01:39:08):
He'll be fine. It's technically colder than Kansas because it's
further north.

Speaker 3 (01:39:11):
I think the Texans would have beaten the Chiefs on
Sunday Night Football. If it wasn't so cold, signed something
I will not be saying on money.

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
No one's gonna say that if this were played in
Houston in seventy three degree temperatures. Oh now, the crowd
I think can be a factor. But even that I don't.
Other than like snap Cadence's all that kind of stuff,
I don't. You're either good enough to go up there
and winter or not. And I think the Texans are

(01:39:41):
good enough to go up there regardless of the temperatures
or anything else like that. Now, what did Dimiko have
to say about the injury situation? Now brace yourself. This
is a long one. So just strap in because here's
Demiko Ryans on the current injury situation for the Texans.

Speaker 17 (01:40:00):
Kamari Woody will they they'll be final? See how the
week week goes?

Speaker 2 (01:40:07):
Sounds like you I said that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:10):
Already seven players did not participate in today's practice. The
injury report has arrived and they were all on it. Obviously,
Jamal Hills missed the last couple of games with a
hamstring injury, and the likelihood is uh, he will do
this so again this week. Tim Settle did not notice
his absence at practice, but he was not at practice today.

Speaker 2 (01:40:28):
He's got a foot injury.

Speaker 3 (01:40:30):
The injuries listed with each of these players we have
known them because these are all the same things they've
been working through. Other than Kamari last year, he's got
a foot injury. That's why he did not miss practice today.
But you just heard Demiko briefly say that he'll be fine.
We'll see how the week goes. The ankle injury that
had Woody Marks missing some of Sunday's game before returning.
Chest and shoulder injuries continue for Will Anderson Junior. It's

(01:40:52):
a knee injury. For Deniko Autrey. The hand injury. I
think earlier today I accidentally said foot. It's a hand
injury that Trent Brown has been playing through and likely
we'll do so again this week. The Ziz al Shair,
who did miss some time during Sunday's game but also returned.
He was limited today with that knee injury, but.

Speaker 12 (01:41:11):
He was out there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:12):
Yeah, as far as the I mentioned this yesterday, the
defense just on the whole being not completely healthy. We
got done telling you about Will Anderson and Azzy al Shair,
for example, but I don't recall them being remotely this
healthy on that side of the football a year ago

(01:41:34):
at this time when they went up to Kansas City.
I mean, it was just and it wasn't like again
going back to last season, the Chiefs weren't impressive on
offense then either until they were because of the way
you defended them in the postseason, But they weren't the
I was astounded and still end of this day, that
they had they finished with the record that they did,
considering just how underwhelming it seemed like their offense was

(01:41:55):
at times.

Speaker 3 (01:41:56):
I could be wrong or missing something more significant, but
in my opinion, the only thing injury related that impacted
their game was the one that happened in game. Anybody
that didn't go into the game with is not a
reason for me to say that they were unable to
beat Kansas City. Even Jalen Petrie is specifically, he's the
only one I can think of that wasn't there that
would have that. I think you might be referring to, Yeah,

(01:42:19):
but those are, yes, exactly, those are That's a if I.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
Were to tell you that, you know, Will Anderson Junior,
he's not going to be playing it one hundred percent,
but he's gonna play and you're you're kind of just
hoping for the best and Jalen Peatree's out, it would
that would significantly It would be worse than if Jalen

(01:42:44):
Peatree was playing right.

Speaker 3 (01:42:46):
But that's as far as I would take it, Like
you're not a whole unit when one of your starters
isn't there. I recognize that, and that obviously is of
some impact. But to me, that's they didn't go in
there as some banged up, incapable team. They had that
injury and nothing else. They were very healthy. Everybody was

(01:43:06):
there but him. It seemed like they were limping into
that game with well, I mean, Stefan Diggs obviously wasn't there,
but he'd already been gone half the season. They didn't
struggle on defense because Petrie wasn't there. It's not like
played right, Yeah, Mixing played, Nico played. Obviously, the whole
offense was ready to go. You had the in game injury,
which I've references, yes, though super impactful rights.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
That means a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
That's a game day injury to somebody who means a
lot to your offense. On a touchdown catch, by the way,
which he's forgetting about that. He held onto the ball
at a thirty yard touchdown pass. It's insane kick failed.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
Are you serious right now?

Speaker 3 (01:43:44):
That was the one he missed? You don't remember, No,
I was. Everybody was all, oh man, this is awful,
this is so bad. Oh and they're still losing because
it's seventeen sixteen instead of seventeen seventy.

Speaker 1 (01:43:57):
Something about the ambulance on the field and all that
kind of stuff. I think the kick was like an afterthought.

Speaker 7 (01:44:03):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:44:03):
I mean, we've talked all this stuff about the football
players and the weather. If we want to be real
about it, I think the weather will impact one part
of the Texans game, the kicking, the place kicking. The
Tommy Townsend should be okay, he's going home. He's played
in Kansas City for years. Their punning should be fine.
Kennemy Fairbaron and I don't have the data in front

(01:44:25):
of me, and I think this is more accurate than inaccurate.
I imagine his kicking has been less successful as the
temperature has drifted into where it will be in this game.
That's not good in a season like this. You don't
play very many games like that in the regular season
like this. It all depends on what the NFL tells
you from a schedule standpoint. But if you're the Texans,
as CJ became their quarterback three years of trying to

(01:44:48):
get to the AFC title game, odds of you landing
a postseason date at Baltimore, at Kansas City, or at
Buffalo are through the roof. It's pretty much all they've
done this year. It might be different, but you could
be looking at a trip to Denver, or a trip
to New England, or a trip to Pittsburgh if they

(01:45:09):
win their division and you're not better than them all
these places unless you're going to Indianapolis or Jacksonville, you're
playing postseason football in conditions.

Speaker 2 (01:45:20):
Yeah, or playing at home. That should strive for that.

Speaker 3 (01:45:23):
Which is exactly what they said after last year's game
in Kansas City. Wasn't because of the weather though, It's
because they thought they were playing against eighteen Chiefs, eleven
in Chiefs costumes and seven in black and white shirts.

Speaker 2 (01:45:38):
Well we got to get these games at home.

Speaker 1 (01:45:40):
They treated Travis Kelcey like he was a mannequin, and
then he treated in the regular season game he had
thirty yards. Yeah, I'll still I mean that was brutal,
absolutely brutal. All right, our signature segment coming up. It's
Wednesday BS, and it's next.

Speaker 6 (01:45:58):
A little help over the with some Wednesday BS, two.

Speaker 2 (01:46:03):
Adams and a whole lot of bit stealing.

Speaker 6 (01:46:05):
BT stealing with dump bit stealers, better known as the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:46:12):
It is a signature segment time and on a Wednesday,
we hit you with Wednesday's BS. Haven't done a lot
of bit stealing lately, but that can always return.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
Just not today.

Speaker 3 (01:46:21):
We'll be dealing more with the actual meaning of those
crude meeting of those two letters BNS, and I'll reference
something I brought up earlier in the week but did
not have a chance to get to yet. The New
England Patriots closed out Week thirteen with another victory. It's
pretty much all they do. They started the year one
and two. They won ten consecutive games. They are the
current number one seed in the AFC. That performance very

(01:46:47):
easy went over the Giants. On Monday night, elicited this
social media post on the X platform from noted Patriots
Honk and well respected NFL media member Bert Breer. The
Patriots are eleven and two. What an insane turnaround? Almost

(01:47:08):
tough to explain, but they nailed the draft and hit
on almost all their free agents. Still don't think the
roster's quite there yet, but that's getting to get to
getting tougher to argue. Most importantly, they definitely have the
head coach and quarterback, and as has now been the case,
I'm trying to be less restrictive of myself and if
I feel the need to assist.

Speaker 2 (01:47:28):
I will, and I did in this case.

Speaker 3 (01:47:30):
I quote tweeted that, and since he wrote almost tough
to explain, I responded with, almost tough to explain, but
let's try. The Patriots are nine to oh against this
group of quarterbacks. Tua, Bryce, Spencer, Rattler, cam Ward Dylan Gabriel,

(01:47:51):
Michael Pennix, Junior, Justin Fields, Joe Flacco and now Jackson
Dart played those nine quarterbacks I know against them. Okay, well,
that's almost their whole win total. They're two and two
against this group of quarterbacks. Gino Smith, Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen,
Baker Mayfield So Gino Smith's obviously not having a great year.

(01:48:15):
Rogers somewhere in the middle, may feel a little bit better.
Josh Allen great so a mix of veteran quarterbacks and
they've had a five hundred record against those two those outfits,
that's their whole season. Those are the thirteen quarterbacks they've faced.
They'll see some of them again as they finish out
their schedule. The first nine quarterbacks are fifty games under

(01:48:35):
five hundred with their teams this year, and the Patriots
have helped contribute to that by not losing to any
of them. The last group of four quarterbacks, their teams
are a mix because of the two to ten Raiders
and the five hundred team that Aaron Rodgers quarterbacks. They're
twenty three and twenty five. They have faced the top
rated eight rated quarterbacks zero times, they face the twelve

(01:49:00):
rated quarterback one time that's Josh Allen, and nine times
they've faced the fourteen lowest rated quarterbacks, plus three other
games against quarterbacks that would fit in that group.

Speaker 2 (01:49:12):
But they haven't qualified yet.

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
And then I tried to make sure he didn't cry,
and I said, doesn't mean May hasn't been awesome, shouldn't
be any lower than second in the current MVP race,
doesn't mean Rabel hasn't been the perfect choice.

Speaker 2 (01:49:24):
Same as May and Coach of Year race.

Speaker 3 (01:49:26):
If you're voting for the Coach of the Year, and
Mike Rabel isn't listed first and second on your ballot
as we sit here today, I'm not sure why you
would do that. And if you're voting for MVP and
Drake May's not first or second on your list, because
while that might be who their defense has been on
the field with, he has been at an exceptionally high level.
I think because of his play, they are eleven and two,

(01:49:49):
maybe regardless of many of those other things, but by
today I have a chance to add more bs to that.
Someone was talking about Drake May and they said May
has actually played a bunch of good defense. It's just
the offenses the Pats play are really bad. And I thought,
I don't know about that. I mean, these teams with
these bad quarterbacks, how good good their defense really really be?

(01:50:10):
Someone else thought the same thing, so they responded with
New England's pathetic schedule. I've never seen anything like it.
These are the defenses they've faced, and we'll measure it
in terms of points per drive. The Texans are number one,
the Seahawks are number two, the Broncos are number three,
the Rams are number four. I don't think anybody's gonna
argue those are the four best defenses in the NFL. Okay, well,

(01:50:33):
now we'll use that as our ranking. They've played against
the fifth best defense, the fifteenth best defense, the seventeenth
best defense, and every defense rated twenty or lower. But
two ten of those thirteen games have been against ten
of the twelve worst defenses in the NFL. So if
you really, really, really, really really really want to tell

(01:50:53):
me that is the easiest path to eleven and two,
I would one hundred percent believe you. Doesn't mean they
won't win, doesn't mean Dray Bay is it awesome, doesn't
mean Mike Vrabel isn't doesn't mean anything except these are
truths about what they have been up against thus far
through their first thirteen games. They're off this week. They've
been up against next to nothing almost the entire season,

(01:51:17):
almost every single week they've played every week this year.

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
They're on their off week this week. They beat the Bills.
That is a good win.

Speaker 3 (01:51:25):
There's so much to dislike about everything else they've done
only because of the opposition for the whole season.

Speaker 2 (01:51:32):
Well, we said this was gonna happen in the preseason.
That's the other part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:51:37):
Third place schedule, well, you keep saying third play schedule,
that's two games, that's it doesn't really matter what. But
you just went down the list of the dregs of society.
But it's not because of their schedule being third place.
Every team in their division basically has the same schedule
except for three games. Okay, they crossover game in the NFC,
and then the two third place games, which two games
can be of value because the third place team is

(01:51:59):
usually not playoff team. If you're the first place team
or second place team, almost all the time it is
a playoff team from the year before. But if I
just ran through this third play schedule, that's two additional games.
But I gave you a list of nine embarrassing quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 (01:52:14):
Yeah, and that's not on the Patriots. For those teams
on the Patriots, you're back beat what's in front of you,
and they have. But they will find out probably in
the postseason that it's it's not all it's not all
sunshine and rainbows when you actually go up against the team.

Speaker 3 (01:52:34):
I mean, look, we'll see who they get. I think
they get the Texans. Yeah, the Texans certainly as a
seventh seed. The Texans are the seventh seed and they
win their game. The Patriots are number one. There's your matchup.

Speaker 1 (01:52:45):
Poetics, by the way, as the franchise that constantly kept
you from winning in that round so many years.

Speaker 3 (01:52:51):
The franchise, sure Rabel has something to do with it,
but very little else inside it other than possible Hall
of Famer Robert Kraft.

Speaker 1 (01:52:59):
I'm saying Texans beating the Patriots to go to the
AFC Championship title game. I would love that after beating
on the Chiefs in the regular season. Yeah, it would
all be good, especially since the Chiefs wouldn't be in
the postseason in all likelihood.

Speaker 2 (01:53:11):
If you do that, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:53:11):
I'll bring this up to have a local angle to it.
Let's use that very same list the defenses points against
per drive. The Texans are number one. Well, the Texans
do not have the Texans on their schedule.

Speaker 2 (01:53:24):
You can't do it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:24):
So they can only play nine of the other top
ten defenses in the NFL, or they can only play
eleven of the top twelve defenses in the NFL, whatever
number you want to stop at.

Speaker 2 (01:53:35):
Here's who the Texans have faced.

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
The second best defense, the third best defense, the fourth
best defense, the seventh best defense, the tenth best defense,
the eleventh best defense, the thirteenth best defense, the fifteenth
best defense. Yeah, and two of those teams are AFC
South teams, so they've seen one of them twice already
and they're about to see the other one a second time.

Speaker 2 (01:53:55):
First place schedule, they've had.

Speaker 3 (01:53:56):
An unbelievable first place schedule, but it does provide some
context to the Texans having less than pleasing offensive football
this year. They've literally played the four best defenses in
the NFL that they could because they're one of them.
They've played Seattle, they've played Denver, they've played La Is
there another team in the NFL that's done that?

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
Unfortunately, they didn't win any of those games, and that's
you usually see in the postseason. Even though two of
those teams you mentioned or what which ones? Which ones
did you mention? Seattle that's NFC, Denver's AFC, and who
is the other one?

Speaker 2 (01:54:32):
The Rams?

Speaker 1 (01:54:32):
Oh yeah, so yeah, that's why I thought two of
those three are not in their conference. So they'll only
play them again if they get to the super Bowl,
and that would be pretty awesome. All right, we will
wind down the four o'clock hour in here from CJ
Stroud coming up next. We have not heard from him today,
talking about playing not only in that same cold that
we asked Demiko about today, but playing opposite never on

(01:54:56):
the field with Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 2 (01:54:58):
It's Wex's favorite topic.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
It's CJ versus Mahomes in which they never play against
each other at the same time. Next, rolling along here
on a Wednesday edition of the program, it's Sports Talk
seven ninety Space City Home Network. Rockets basketball coming up tonight.
The Kings are in town. They're awful. Rockets should romp.
Matter of fact, the Rockets should take these next two games.

(01:55:23):
I think that is not too much to expect Sacramento
Kings and a wounded Phoenix Suns team, even with the
return of Dylan Brooks. No tribute video required, but they
should win. They leave just leave it at those two
games because they play Dallas after that.

Speaker 2 (01:55:40):
I hear you, well, I was just talking about the
home game. Oh yeah, I get you. I'm with you.
They're going to Dallas and slaughtering that jag. I know
it's a flag. No, it's only Wednesday, but as of today,
Anthony Davis is healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:55:53):
Woo Anthony Davis. Hopefully he doesn't have a hangnail before
tip off that night. They're one zero this week? I think,
who did they beat?

Speaker 2 (01:56:03):
Denver?

Speaker 12 (01:56:04):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:56:05):
Well, then, by by all means they only beat the
awesome team. When are they going to beat the Thunder
the Dallas? Everybody does that except for Portland. Oh okay,
good question.

Speaker 3 (01:56:15):
Don't have to spend a whole segment or rest of
the show on this, or even revisit this again until
much later in the season. Are the Thunder going to
set the NBA record for regular season wins?

Speaker 2 (01:56:24):
Probably? I agree. I hate it, and I hate the
fact that, well, they had to go to the source.

Speaker 1 (01:56:31):
They had to go interview the Golden State Warriors to
talk about if it's even possible, and since they said
it is, well, now it is. That was an actual
athletic article that was written today. Well, we talked to
Steve Kerr, and since he was a member of both
the seventy three win Warriors and the ninety six Bulls
team that won seventy two games, and he said it's possible, Well,
now we know it is.

Speaker 2 (01:56:51):
Have you looked at any of their numbers this season?

Speaker 1 (01:56:53):
I didn't need to hear from Steve Kerr or Steph
or Draymond or anybody else. They're going to probably smoke
the Warriors win total if things keep going the way
they are, and they just now got Jalen Williams back,
and if they go to the NBA Finals, they're not
gonna choke away.

Speaker 2 (01:57:10):
A three to one lead. So stop interviewing him. He's
a third. They're on a seventy eight point three to
one win percentage.

Speaker 3 (01:57:18):
Yes' in a schedule, they're on pace to win all
of them but four.

Speaker 2 (01:57:23):
Their net rating is north of fifteen. Yeah, they're first
in the league. The Rockets are. I think they're still
second even after the Rockets is amazing, but it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:57:33):
Twenty one and one and there's five games between them
and the second place Lakers. There are also five games
between the Lakers and the eighth place Warriors, so the
same gap between one and two and eight. I know
what you're saying, but when you have the two greatest
regular season records ever and you can talk to one

(01:57:56):
person who is a part of both of those outfits.

Speaker 1 (01:57:58):
Oh, I agree that from the print standpoint, but the
problem is that also means you have to talk to
Steve Kerr and I'm just not a fan of that.

Speaker 2 (01:58:05):
He was willing to speak.

Speaker 3 (01:58:06):
I don't like him. I don't like him personally. Our
listeners are very very very very well aware somebody here
in Houston likes Steve Kerr. He's a boob. Did not
give you the Kansas City Chiefs side of the injury situation,
although we'd basically done it over the course of the show.
Trey Smith did not practice with that ankle injury that
timeline wise doesn't seem like he could be on track

(01:58:27):
to plan this game but had not been ruled out yet.
And tackle Juwan Taylor, the tackle that they didn't have
to put on ir also was not expected to practice
today and he didn't. He's got a knee injury and
a triceps injury, so it's very possible their best five
man group will be without three players when they get
together with the Texans on Sunday. Patrick mahomes knee injury

(01:58:49):
only allowed him to fully participate. By the way, would
you say triceps?

Speaker 1 (01:58:55):
Why do I feel like that would be the one
injury where if it was Gary, he wouldn't say he's
got a triceps, He's got an arm. No, he would
say he's got a triceps injury. Oh no, what's going
on with with Juwan Taylor this week? He's got an arm.
He would not say this. He would there's so many
parts of your arm, triceps. Is the back need to

(01:59:16):
give you deets?

Speaker 2 (01:59:17):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:59:19):
I think that's where he would even draw the line
with his gimmick. It's like you, what's uh, what do
you think the status is? I know it's a Thursday
game with Buffalo, but with both Jalen Petrie and c J.

Speaker 2 (01:59:28):
Stroud? W what do you think things staying?

Speaker 5 (01:59:29):
With him?

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
They got ahead, they got ahead, they got ahead again.
He would not he would not do that.

Speaker 8 (01:59:37):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (01:59:37):
C J.

Speaker 2 (01:59:38):
Stroud would not be worried about playing in the cold.

Speaker 1 (01:59:41):
I don't even know what he said here, but I
know that he's even less worried about that than Demiko Ryans,
as he was asked about playing in the cold of
Kansas City.

Speaker 18 (01:59:50):
No, I think I'm still kind of used to it.
I mean, it wasn't that long ago to where I
was playing, you know, in Nicole. So I try my best,
you know, to stay warm. But you know, I don't
really think it really. I mean for some guys maybe,
but I'm grateful that I went to the House state
and played in some of those environments.

Speaker 1 (02:00:06):
That's a very honest answer for a guy like him
who grew up in California, and that's not a particularly
cold environment out there, unless you're in the Bay Area,
which the weather changes every five seconds.

Speaker 3 (02:00:20):
Double checking my video to make sure I saw it correctly.
He had long sleeves on, and he had those loose
fitting sweat pant wind pant type pants on over whatever
he was wearing underneath, probably leggings, and went out there
and practiced today and temperatures that still aren't anywhere near
where they will.

Speaker 2 (02:00:40):
Be in Kansas City, but he seemed quite comfortable.

Speaker 1 (02:00:43):
Like worth thirty degrees give or take off from what
it will actually be or feel like it probably felt like.

Speaker 2 (02:00:52):
I bet, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:00:53):
Middle of the day today, sun was out, but well,
when I was a wind in the one o'clock hour,
it was fifty five, right, but it was a little
bit temperature. You don't get the feels like on your
phone or on your you haven't displayed, you haven't talked
about the winds here, right, So and again this will
it does matter when at night, it will be less warm.

Speaker 1 (02:01:11):
At night, but I like that, he said, Uh, I
think I'm still pretty used to it. Like it has
been three years since he's played at Ohio State, right,
But we're focusing.

Speaker 3 (02:01:20):
On the two or three November December. They don't have
any home games in December, not before the playoffs were around,
So maybe he played a late October November home game. Well,
we're focused on those Saturdays only. What about the rest
of the week practicing and when he's going to class
walking around campus, Yes, you'd be a student athlete cold. Yeah,

(02:01:41):
Well when he's going to the library at night, I
don't think he went to the library at night.

Speaker 2 (02:01:46):
Well, you think he's a home studier. I think it
was all the way to the football facility.

Speaker 3 (02:01:50):
Sure, you're not going to the library to check a
book out to study, you're taking your stuff with you
to sit at the quiet library.

Speaker 2 (02:01:56):
I never went to the library to do any of
that stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:01:59):
I went maybe once or twice at Sam Houston State
to see if it was really haunted, and I never
went there ever again.

Speaker 2 (02:02:05):
Most not because it was gonna.

Speaker 3 (02:02:06):
Say most, but it feels like a lot of people,
whether you're a dorm life, high rise life, house life,
apartment life, feels like a lot. A high percentage of
college students utilize the quieter facilities, whether they're libraries or
classrooms to study.

Speaker 2 (02:02:26):
I like to read a lot. I don't like to
read traditional books. Do you know why they're long and boring?

Speaker 13 (02:02:32):
Well?

Speaker 3 (02:02:33):
Sorry, kids, hope my kid wasn't listening. No, his books
aren't long yet, there's much shorter. Some of them are
when you're trying to get him too sleep, like is
this thing over yet?

Speaker 12 (02:02:43):
Come on?

Speaker 3 (02:02:44):
But then I'm going to think in like a year
or two, I don't get to read to him. You
only read books to him at night to get him
to go to sleep. You know how many pages isn't
going to take tonight?

Speaker 2 (02:02:53):
You know what this kid actually does?

Speaker 1 (02:02:55):
Actual quote from him last night, Mom, I need a
chat GPT story and she he has Alexa do it.

Speaker 2 (02:03:02):
These kids these.

Speaker 3 (02:03:03):
Days, they don't know what they have. They definitely don't
know what they don't have and didn't have. He asked
her to make him some food the other day, and
we had to revisit how he asked.

Speaker 2 (02:03:14):
I said the end was the end of his statement. Woman,
It should have been make me some food for all
intents and purposes.

Speaker 1 (02:03:22):
I said, you're getting a little too Italian over there,
all right, And he looked at me and he said, hey,
I'm walking over here.

Speaker 2 (02:03:27):
Does he order his food in Italian too? He's very Italian?
Is he at a sandwich shop? He doesn't eat sandwiches? Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:03:33):
I want to hear him order an Italian sandwich from Teresa.
Sometimes he will, But the problem is he'll be ordering
it from her. He's not going to a restaurant ordering food.
Mom does that for him, which shouldn't be that way.

Speaker 2 (02:03:44):
But I digress. All right, five o'clock hour, Football at
five coming up next five o'clock on the A team
on a Rockets game day. You know what that means
one of us is there anymore?

Speaker 3 (02:03:56):
That's Ac making his way on down to toy Ata
Center for Rocket King. So we'll take you through the
final hour of the program and then get you directly
into Rockets coverage, Rockets launch Pad, Rockets Countdown, and of
course tip off tonight the thirteen win Rockets and the
five win Sacramento Kings the matchup tonight over at Toyota Center.
Rockets opened the week with back to back games in Utah.

(02:04:19):
Will win on a loss, They'll close out the week
with back to back games in Houston and Dallas. They've
got the Suns on Friday night and then the MAVs
on Saturday night on the road in Dallas. The second
set of back to back games this season. Obviously, it
comes during the same weeks of five games in seven
days for your Rockets. Hopefully it won't curtail this fantastic

(02:04:39):
start they've gotten off to. I won thirteen to fifteen
after dropping the first two games of the season, and
now we're thirteen and five overall this NBA campaign. Looking
to start a winning streak. The Texans are looking to
continue a winning streak. It was just a couple of
weeks ago when things did not look good for the Texans,
and this was well after their own three start, because

(02:05:00):
their own three start was one thing, the fact that
it took until their twelfth game of the season, their
last game, the first time they'd played a game while
being an over five hundred team. They were six and
five when they hit the field and made it seven
and five. They'd won four straight because even after the
three and five start, they were still sitting at three
and five, and then they were at four and five

(02:05:22):
and five and five and six and five and seven
and five. Now after winning four consecutive games, when you
look around the AFC, specifically with this first team, they
will see down their last five games of the season
and what they've done to put themselves in these respective positions.
When the Texas were sitting there at three and five
before this four game winning streak, well, the Chiefs were
a five to win football team. The Chiefs are currently

(02:05:43):
a six win football team because they've lost three of
their last five games, or three of their last four games.

Speaker 2 (02:05:49):
They were off the other week.

Speaker 3 (02:05:50):
So in the last five weeks they have a win,
and that was an overtime win against the Colts. That's
all they've done. One win in five weeks, win in
four weeks. If you want to equate it to what
the Texans have done in four weeks, four wins. That's
how they've not only made up the gap but passed
them over this time period. Clearly, the Patriots and Broncos

(02:06:11):
haven't lost. You have an eleven win our ten game
winning streak and a nine game winning streak respectively. They've
won all four of their last four games. Chargers have
won twice in the last four weeks, Bills have won
twice in the last four weeks. The Jaguars have won
twice or excuse me, three times in the last four weeks.
The Colts have won once in the last four weeks.
The Steelers have won once in the last four weeks.

(02:06:34):
There are a couple of off weeks mixed in there
with some of those teams, but it shows you what
we mentioned when the Texans were so far away from
the playoffs they needed help. They don't need help anymore.
If they go five to zero and thus close the
season on a nine game winning streak w twelve and five,
there's a one hundred percent chance, and it's literal, I'm

(02:06:55):
not saying it, but because of other teams, games and
even ties that could happen, they will be in the
playoffs at twelve and five. In every single scenario, there
is no scenario where they win all their games and
do not make the playoffs. There are a lot of
scenarios where they win all their games and win the division.
There are a lot of scenarios where they win all
but one of their games and win the division and

(02:07:15):
make the playoffs. We're running into very few scenarios where
if they finish three and two and end the season
at ten and seven. That they make the playoffs, it's
not ideal. And now you would go back to the
needing help portion of your season because the Chiefs with
six wins could easily get to ten and seven. Obviously,
it gets even easier if one of those wins is

(02:07:37):
against you. The Bills the Chargers still ahead of you
at eight and four, the Colts the Jaguars still ahead
of you at eight and four, even if they slip
and lose three of their final five and finish ten
and seven. It's an awful lot of teams at ten
and seven, and if your losses are all conference games
and they have four games remaining inside the AFC, that

(02:07:58):
tiebreaker kind of goes out the window. The fact that
the Chargers are still on your schedule, a loss to
them probably not going to be in a good tiebreaker
situation with them. Same thing with the Chiefs, see Jaguars.
Maybe it's fifty to fifty because of your division record,
but that's still pending if one of those losses is
to the Colts. So simple, win your games, don't worry

(02:08:20):
about it. When your games win the division, and potentially
don't worry about it. The only two teams they likely
will not catch are the ten win Broncos and the
eleven win Patriots. The Broncos have a really really good
chance of being eleven and two, just like the Patriots.
After this week, Patriots will be off and the Broncos
are playing the Raiders for the second time in five weeks.
They were awful. One of the worst games of the

(02:08:42):
year was against the Raiders, and they still won by three.
Because the Raiders are awful now, they go to the
Raiders this weekend and again, if they win, will be
their tenth straight win, and they will be eleven and two.
Texans aren't going to catch them, most likely, even with
a difficult schedule remaining, and I think both of them.

Speaker 2 (02:08:58):
Do you know, the Jets being on the pay schedule
seems rather easy.

Speaker 3 (02:09:01):
Bill's Ravens to Jets, Dolphins their final four games, Raiders, Packers, Jaguars, Chiefs, Chargers.
Very difficult remaining schedule for the Broncos, but I don't
think the Texans are even considering trying to catch them.
All that being said, let's go to this week. They're
playing the Chiefs this week. They are not favored, but
it is a tight line. We'll see where it is

(02:09:24):
at the end of the week, but roughly about a
field goal Mien at four and a half to open
bit at three and a half most of the rest
of the week.

Speaker 2 (02:09:29):
I imagine that's where it will stay.

Speaker 3 (02:09:30):
I don't think there's any injuries of significance basically the
two quarterbacks that will have any impact on that.

Speaker 2 (02:09:35):
So that's likely where it will be heard from CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:09:40):
Stroud and from Demico Ryans on the non Chiefs portion
of this matchup this week, the weather and the coldness.
So now let's hear from c J. Stroud on a
much more important thing, and that is who he isn't
personally up against, but who they are obviously personally up against.
He has faced Mahome in the regular season and in

(02:10:01):
the postseason without coming out victorious in each of those games.
He's obviously on the sidelines looking at his surface tablet
and running things over with Grad Johnson while Pat Mahomes
is working his magic. But the matchup is still always
what they will promote. It'll be on all the graphics,
it's what we'll all talk about. How about you, CJ.
Playing Mahomes in Kansas City?

Speaker 18 (02:10:21):
I mean, it's always cool to go playing case, you know,
against you know that team who's you know, been really
great for the last couple of years. I've been a
fan of you know, a Path for a long time,
and just he's a heck of a player, and it's
it's just really cool, you know, being about five years
ago I was in high school, you know, watching and
you know, now he's competing against those guys. So but yeah,
I mean, I don't really think we have the head.

(02:10:43):
I don't really know him too well, you know, but
I think, you know, he's a heck of a player
and anytime you get to share a pheld you know
some legendary guys, you know, and you just try to
gain their respect.

Speaker 3 (02:10:54):
He shares the field with him after the game when
they shake hands, and doesn't share the field with him
literally during the He's facing the Chiefs defense, which is
maybe average at best. Pat Mahomes is facing the Texans defense,
which is arguably the best in the NFL. They have
some injury concerns, doesn't necessarily mean they will be derailed
by it, but their offensive line is not very healthy.

Speaker 2 (02:11:15):
Going into this game.

Speaker 3 (02:11:16):
Texans would like to think that they can take advantage
of that and throw some things at a unit that
hasn't worked a whole lot together that may have communication issues,
may not see things the same way. Obviously, I haven't
had a ton of practice time together, and the communication
among that five player group is usually pretty important when
protecting Mahomes or any quarterback. He'll obviously create as much
as anyone out there. He's not regarded as a running

(02:11:37):
quarterback like he probably should be. He doesn't pile up
gaudy numbers like Josh Allen or like Lamar Jackson or
any other running quarterback, but he extends plays successfully, in
my opinion, better than anybody. Better than Lamar and better
than Josh, and they're both awesome at it. I just
think he's the best in the NFL at it. And
that is the concern for the Texans. I think it's

(02:11:58):
really good that they just had their recent game with
Josh Allen. There is the reason why he was extremely
unsuccessful in extending plays against Houston was because they didn't
even give him anywhere to go. And escaping the pocket
is where he wants to go, whether that's out the
right side, out the left side, or through the you know,
stepping up in the pocket or pushing his way through.

Speaker 2 (02:12:21):
They wasn't offered to him, and there was nowhere to go.
And it's very hard.

Speaker 3 (02:12:24):
I think it's harder to do that against Mahomes than
anybody because he is as elusive as it gets. He's
not looking to run, he's almost never looking to run.
But he also knows that the defense is thinking that too,
So when he does run, there's usually space. When you
come up to get him, he throws it over your head,
he floats a pass who his tight end, or he
floats a pass to someone probably that was in the slot.

(02:12:46):
Not often to Travis Kelcey, but often enough. If you
don't come up, he'll just take the yards that you
give him. He's willing to take a hit, even though
you'd think this is exactly what we want. It's what
you want up until they flag you for it. It's
what you want up until he stepped out of bound.
So it's what you want until you think he stepped
out of bounds, and then he doesn't. Then he gets
the extra yards. We saw what happened to Jackson Dart
on Monday night. He got right up afterwards, even though

(02:13:09):
he's been in concussion protocol more than once this season,
and it's a hit that's very avoidable. Some quarterbacks don't
always try to avoid those hits, and Mahomes usually does.
But if he thinks he can take whatever is coming
his way from a physical standpoint, if the position of
the oncoming player and himself is one where he doesn't
think he's gonna get blown up, he'll take the hit

(02:13:30):
and then he will look back at the referee trailing
to play and hope that there is a flag thrown.
So these are things that you have to be supremely
concerned with. The Texans, I mentioned the last time they
beat him in the regular season was twenty nineteen. That
obviously predates Tamiko, predates CJ. Will Anderson, etc. Doesn't predate Mahomes.
That was very very early in his career. And that

(02:13:51):
was the only time in the regular season is lost
to the Texans in Kansas City. They've played a couple
of games, obviously, they've seen him in the postseason five
against Pat Mahomes. When you include the postseason and last
year's game, there are some things to consider, just because
of how much the rosters were similar, how much both
teams have had some consistency in what they liked to do. Clearly,

(02:14:12):
the Texans defense has made themselves even better, and they
obviously have a new offensive coordinator, a new man in
the backfield Joe Mixon, then Woody Marks and Nick Chubb now,
so there are still some significant changes. Last year we
talked about it a little bit. It was a seventeen
to ten game in the third quarter, Chiefs leading when CJ.
Stroud connected on that thirty yard touchdown pass to Tank Dell.

Speaker 2 (02:14:34):
It was a touchdown. He did catch the ball.

Speaker 3 (02:14:37):
He also had his season and it has not played since.
It was followed by Kamee Fairbairn missing a field goal.
Texans went from down seventeen to ten to seventeen sixteen.

Speaker 2 (02:14:47):
It stayed there.

Speaker 3 (02:14:48):
Chiefs went up twenty four to sixteen. Texans got a
field goal, they won up twenty seven nineteen, and then
the Texans got the ball back with just over five
minutes left, more than enough time to drive down the field,
probably more more than once. But they went three and out.
And the unfortunate real big thing with CJ's game, I'd
love to see him get rid of. It's third and long.

(02:15:09):
It's a terrible place to be and it's not the
greatest thing to get sacked, but try not losing as
many yards and an eleven yard loss on third and eleven,
you can't go for it on fourth and twenty whatever
when you're in your own territory. Even when there aren't
that many minutes left in a game, you're down by
one possession. So they punted and they never got the
ball back. That's why their most recent loss was yet

(02:15:31):
another disappointing day. In casey, as we always do, you're
on Sports Talk seven ninety like to hook our listeners
up with some event tickets. Who got concert tickets to
give away? Final segment of the show is when we'll
do that to help send you to go see Chicago
and Sticks playing together on August twentieth and Tody's playing

(02:15:53):
this December over at the House of Blues, that's December
twenty ninth. Give you all the full details on that.
Got a pair of tickets to give away to each
when we get to the final segment of the show.
As always, you just listen to the program and you
are definitely gonna know the answer to the question we
will ask at that point in time. Mentioned last segment
that potential for the Texans to finish the year with

(02:16:13):
nine consecutive victories, and just went out beat the Chiefs
in Kansas City, beat the Chargers in LA, beat the
Colts in the return matchup here in the final week
of the season to close things out in Week eighteen,
and also somehow manage to win home games against both
the Cardinals and Raiders, and that gets you twelve and five.
Like I said, even if the Jaguars went out go

(02:16:37):
thirteen and four, they would still win the division, but
you'd have one of the other playoff spots Denver, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chargers,
New England, and Houston. Those will be your playoff teams.
Jacksonville and Indianapolis can't both went out. Not only can
they that both went out, but they play each other twice.

(02:17:00):
So if one team sweeps, that means the other team
is now behind you. They have one more win. All
other games we don't know the results of. But if
you lose both games in that series, well, now all
of a sudden, you've gone from a four loss team
to a six loss team. Well, Texans, a our a
five lost team currently Obviously that team would be behind
you and I think the odds are very good. Also,

(02:17:21):
even if those two teams split, you're gonna win the
tiebreaker over them. You have a chance to win the
tiebreaker outright against the Indianapolis Colts by a virtue of
the second meeting with them. That would also make you
five and one in the division. Neither of those two
teams can finish five and one in the division based
on the other results, you would win the division in
any tiebreaker situation. And thus who are sitting much closer

(02:17:44):
to the top of the standing. So, like I said,
it is all in their hands now. It's always where
you want to be. Most of the teams that are
going to the playoffs as we sit here today do
control their own destiny. The Chiefs are probably that one
bubble team five straight to close out. They still only
get to eleven and six, but in the process, will

(02:18:04):
they have made their chances better. Passing the Texans is great,
but the Texans aren't even in the playoffs right now,
so they have to pass two teams, and one of
those obviously is inside the picture, and one of those
is the Chargers, and that's one of the teams they
still have a game remaining with, So I do think
they should feel similar to Houston, and they've been pretty clear.

(02:18:24):
Pat Mahomes said it after Thursday's loss to the Cowboys.
He basically knows they have to win every game. If
they finish ten and seven, they're not going to the playoffs.
If they finish eleven and six, they give themselves the
best chance to make the playoffs. So plenty on the
line this matchup between them, and I do think this
is what good teams ultimately get.

Speaker 2 (02:18:44):
They get rivalries.

Speaker 3 (02:18:46):
They can't have a rivalry unless they split the games
in some form, you can have a zero in one column.
It's what we talk about with the Astros and Yankees.
It's nice that they play in the playoffs all the time,
but if the Yankees don't ever beat them, I have
a hard time with that word rivalry because you know,
somebody's got to win one. And if it's the same
team every time, I guess they're your rivals because they

(02:19:08):
keep losing to you and it's fun and it's you know,
cry tears. But the Texans are the Yankees to the
Kansas City Chiefs. They can't beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
It is a rivalry when you can also beat them. Ironically,
if the Texans beat them this Sunday, there are gonna
be a lot of people that think, well, this is
the end of the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (02:19:29):
It might be the end for one year. Mahomes isn't retiring.

Speaker 3 (02:19:33):
Andy Reid isn't gonna forget how to coach, Brett Viech
isn't gonna forget how to get talent together.

Speaker 2 (02:19:38):
Down year is what the Chiefs have avoided.

Speaker 3 (02:19:40):
They've been in the AFC title game for almost a decade,
more than half a decade now. They've been to the
Super Bowl many times over. They've won multiple Super Bowls.
They still can do that again. Pat Mahomes is their quarterback.
He plays at a high enough level already and will
continue to do so. Thirty year old player. He's not
going anywhere, But yeah, I could end it for the
short term, could end years dreams of reaching the same

(02:20:02):
place they've been before, and that's at the top of
the AFC. They've been at the top of the AFC
for seven years and the Texans can help put a
stop to that. But a rivalry can't exist again in
my description of it, unless they do that. They have
to beat them. That's the opportunity they have on Sunday Night.
Demiko Ryans today commenting on the rivalry with Kansas City.

Speaker 17 (02:20:22):
No rivalry, no, no hard feelings. We lost a football
game right new season.

Speaker 2 (02:20:28):
We have a new team.

Speaker 17 (02:20:30):
About this team this year, like how do we go
out and how do we prepare this week to put
our sales in position to go out and play as
best as we possibly can.

Speaker 3 (02:20:38):
He is really taking we don't carry last year into
this year extensively. He will use the word rival. I
think when talking about the Titans, the Colts and the Jaguars.

Speaker 2 (02:20:50):
It's a division game. It's a division rival.

Speaker 3 (02:20:52):
I imagine if I go back and look at the
transcripts or listen to the sound, he might have said that,
But you don't play Kansas City every year, even though
the Texans have offs played them a lot. And if
an AFC team finished in the first finish in first
place repeatedly, then they're gonna see the same teams. It's
why Peyton Manning and Tom Brady played all the time.
It's why Josh Allen and Pat Mahomes play all the time.

(02:21:13):
It's why Lamar Jackson has been in matchups with those
two teams many times over, and the Texans are two
time division champions. They have gotten into that very same mix.
I guess who was on their schedule this year, Baltimore,
Kansas City, and Buffalo. It might look different next year
because none of those teams are in line to win

(02:21:33):
their division. New England's gonna win the East. It looks
like the Steelers and the Ravens are tied at six
and six, and the Chiefs are behind two teams in
their division, and they are five wins or four wins
behind the Broncos right now, so you might have some
new teams to see. But really taking a kind of
far I mean, heck, they played the Chiefs less than

(02:21:54):
twelve months ago, four days before Christmas. They've seen Pat
Mahomes a ton. They play them in the playoffs last year, obviously,
in addition to seeing them during the regular season. This
outfit has seen Pat Mahomes in the playoffs previously, in
a rather un eventful game if you forget the game
entirely a super eventful game if you remember what happened

(02:22:16):
to the massive Texans lead and then the subsequent massive
Texans loss. Yeah, that was a Mahomes game for those
that were trying to forget fifty one to thirty one,
huge lead for Deshaun Watson, Bill O'Brien, Justin Reid and
the Texans, and then a huge embarrassing defeat for the
Texans in the postseason and a rather curious fake punt

(02:22:37):
call assorted other things that went wrong. It's a rivalry
Demko in my mind, and I think a lot of
people's minds as soon as you beat him. So maybe
he's waiting for that, and I hope that he is,
because that is something that probably needs to happen for them,
you know, a rivalry within the division. I'm sure Denver
and La feel great about what they're just going on

(02:22:57):
with Kansas City. Finally been looking it up up at them.
For Justin Herbert for his whole career. It's a little
different for bo Nix. He's only been there a year,
so one year they were behind him and made the playoffs,
and this year and they are now ahead of him
and will likely win the division. But there are a
bunch of players on the Texans that were obviously there
last year, a bunch of players on the Texans that
have seen them previously. Not that many that go back

(02:23:18):
to twenty twenty or twenty nineteen. Quite obviously, almost none,
But I do think that they wouldn't mind and wouldn't
be averse to using that word with this team because
you play him every year. That's the best part about
NFL scheduling to me, for the fans. It's not the
greatest thing for your record and for your chances to
advance and your chances to win the division, but it's

(02:23:40):
why the league succeeds. One of the league reasons they
succeed has nothing to do with football. It has to
do with revenue sharing. Everybody gets the same TV money
even though nobody's watching the Jets play the Whoever's and
everybody's watching the Thanksgiving games for instance, the league is
talking about all the people and the eyeballs that were
on their favorite team to watch from the AFC and

(02:24:00):
their favorite team to watch from the NFC. Chiefs and
Cowboys got together on Thanksgiving. It was extremely highly viewed.
But when you spread all that money around to all
the teams, they have the same opportunity to win. It's
just a matter of of you hired the right people
and do they do the right things with the money?
Are they good enough at scouting for your future. Are
they calling the right shots on draft day? It is

(02:24:21):
a league that is set up for parody, and I
think for the most part, that's exactly what you get.
Patriots are another good example at where were they last
year and where are they this year? It's why every
year they say, oh, this is the seventh time in
eight seasons, or the fifth consecutive year we've got at
least one team. Going from worst to first helps it.
You only have four teams in the division. If you're

(02:24:41):
the worst team in your division, well, there's only three
teams better than you. Well, that's the thing you have
to do.

Speaker 2 (02:24:46):
The next year.

Speaker 3 (02:24:46):
You only have to be better than three other teams.
You get to go to the playoffs, and up until
this year, you also were guaranteed to be playing at home.
Mention the injury situation for the Texans before, and I
don't think there's a whole lot to say until we
see what's on the practice field tomorrow and get the
subsequent injury report. I don't think we'll have a definitive
answer on any of the seven players that did not

(02:25:06):
practice today. And I'll admit that number is alarming, but
I'm not alarmed by it. I don't think there's much
of a concern that the Texans are gonna be without
a host of those players. I think there's even a
chance they're not gonna be without or they will be
have available every single one of those players other than
Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill is not put on IR, but
he's gonna end up missing his third straight game. Texans

(02:25:28):
have made additional signings. They went out and got to
Mown Clark off of waivers a couple weeks ago. They
have now added a mere speed. Both of those players
regarded as plus special teamers. Both were part of the
special teams unit this past week, and both will be
a part of it again this week. That was in
Clark's position, That's basically where Jamal Hill was contributing to
this team. So they've already made the necessary adjustment to

(02:25:51):
the roster in that regard.

Speaker 2 (02:25:52):
In case you missed it.

Speaker 3 (02:25:53):
As always halfway through the final hour of the show,
that comes your way next half way through the hour
of this program, each and every weekday afternoon the eight
Team five thirty, In case you missed it, comes your way.
In case you missed it, Even though we've had the
discussion throughout the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (02:26:09):
We never actually laid it out for you.

Speaker 3 (02:26:11):
Last night the college football playoff rankings, last of its
kind before the conference title games are played, and then
we see the actual final rankings they were released last night. Obviously,
the two teams at the top of the two remaining
undefeated teams and they will play each other this weekend
Ohio State and Indiana. The two twelve and zero regular seasons.

(02:26:33):
The SECS one loss teams followed at number three, six
and seven Georgia, Ole, Miss and Texas A and M.
Four was Texas Tech, five was Oregon. And then you
get into the part of the rankings where we start
to wonder is this the right spot for them? Did
they earn this spot? What is their two loss season

(02:26:54):
really mean? Or one lost season if you're talking about BYU.
But eight through twelve Oklahoma, Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU, and Miami,
followed by Texas and Vanderbilt. I think after that, nobody
has a case to have been one of the best
teams in the country, one of the twelve best teams
or ten best teams. To get in based on your play,

(02:27:16):
not based on you automatically qualified.

Speaker 2 (02:27:18):
The other teams still in the mix that I did
not mention.

Speaker 3 (02:27:21):
Obviously, two of them will play one another the American
Conference Championship between Tulane and North Texas. Tulane at home
for this game. They were twentieth in North Texas at
twenty fourth and they're eleven to one. Both will have
their head coaches moving on to other places after this
season is complete. So after the loss by one of them,

(02:27:43):
and after the playoff loss by the other, and nowhere
in the top twenty five in the playoff rankings will
you find Duke. They are in the ACC title game
against Virginia. Virginia came in at a robust seventeenth, not
even the highest ACC ranked team, but via tiebreakers, Duke
qualified for the ACC title game and Miami did not.

(02:28:06):
A lot of people wondering what exactly it was that
held Texas back. Was it specifically the Florida loss? And
if you take them out their word, yes, it was
clearly they don't have to schedule Ohio State. Earlier today,
both Cryst del Conte, the AD and the head coach,
Steve Sarkisian, indicated they're not looking to alter their current
future schedules that include Michigan and Ohio State in future years.

(02:28:30):
Obviously Ohio State immediately in Michigan a little bit further
down the road, but they know quite obviously, if you
schedule your non conference games, which now there will only
be three of them moving forward with a nine game
SEC schedule, as anybody in the country that you're going
to crush, it won't matter to your playoff chances as
long as you win your SEC games. If they finished

(02:28:50):
ten and two this year, because the first game of
the year was not at Ohio State, they'd be in.
If they finished ten and two this year and one
of their ten wins was against Ohio State, they would
be in this year. But it's very, very very unlikely
there's any scenario of conference title game results and rethinking
by the committee they would have the Texas Longhorns playing

(02:29:13):
in a playoff game. They will be in a bowl game.
It will probably be the best team to play in
any bowl game, and they will be favored to win
their super important bowl game. In the final game they
will play with this year's team.

Speaker 14 (02:29:27):
All right, Josh, what else do we have today? I
was gonna get us back to our Houston Texans here.
Nick Cassario sits down every week on the Texans YouTube channel,
kind of gives you his idea of this scout.

Speaker 3 (02:29:37):
I'd like to refer to it as the in house media. Yeah,
that's it right there, the in house media.

Speaker 14 (02:29:42):
And he gives you a look at how he sees
the offense and the defense of the upcoming opponent. So
here's what he believes will be some challenges for the
Texans against the Chiefs offense this week.

Speaker 19 (02:29:52):
I'd say offensively, obviously, everything goes through Patrick. They've kind
of had a roll through the backs there a little bit.
Haunt's given him some good s. As Pachuck a return
last week, opportunity, they probably could use Pierce a little bit,
kind of mix him in there. The offensive line, they
kind of it's really inside out with Humphrey and Smith,
they're kind of the core of what they're doing. Drafted
Simmons there in the first round. He's playing well, I know,

(02:30:14):
he got hurt the other day. Same thing with Taylor,
so we'll see kind of who's available, who's not. And
in Gray's a good compliment to Travis at tight end
and a receiver. It's really like an influx of different types,
whether it's Hollywood to worthy to Rashid Rice, who's probably
one of the best catch and run receivers in the league.
He makes a big difference for their offense when he's
on the field. Thornton makes some big plays for them

(02:30:35):
down the field, so they kind of use all of
their skill the very versatile and everything starts with fifteen.
And he's as good as really there is in the
league currently and really has been over the course of
the history of our game.

Speaker 3 (02:30:46):
One of the all time greatest fifteens can probably say
that as well. You did hear him mention the name Pierce.
I don't know why he mentioned that. I don't believe
there's any reason for him to be a part of
the Chief's game plan. Remember, he's not on their roster,
he's on their practice squad. They would have to decide
that particular running back with somebody they want to elevate

(02:31:09):
for this game. They have running backs on the roster
that they don't hardly use. To begin with, Eli Mitchell.
Elijah Mitchell has been on the roster and he is
a regular inactive. They play three running backs. They're all
currently healthy. Isaiah Pacheco, who he mentioned, just return this
past week. Kareem Hunt, who's recently run for one hundred
yards in an NFL game, didn't think I'd see that

(02:31:29):
ever again. Embrashard Smith is a little bit more of
a pass catching threat, more a third down back type.

Speaker 2 (02:31:36):
But they all play every week. They're all active every week.

Speaker 3 (02:31:38):
I don't know what reason the Chiefs would have to Activator,
as I said, Elevator even signed to the active roster
Damian Pierce. I don't think they need a return man,
which he obviously did here in Houston. If he's there
to play, I'd be surprised he's there for insurance. And
quite honestly, I can't look past the idea that the
Chiefs thought he's available. He has their playbook, can't hurt.

(02:32:03):
Happens all the time in the NFL. I wouldn't put
it past them to try to have it utilized his
time here in Houston to get a little bit of
insight on some things they might not have otherwise either
seen themselves or wouldn't be able to utilize themselves. I
think their injury issues on the offensive line are more
important to them than any of those things. But nice here,

(02:32:23):
Damian Pierce is still a thought for the Texas. What
about on the other side of the.

Speaker 2 (02:32:27):
Ball, Please Spaks does a great job.

Speaker 19 (02:32:29):
There's the top five in the defense, top five to
six in multiple categories. Big strong, physical front, really strong
up the middle between Chris and then Tranquil and Bolton,
they're two really instinctive physical linebackers. Carl Loftis is probably
one of the more underrated edge players. Got a contract
extension in the offseason, deservedly so. He gave us a

(02:32:49):
bunch of broms last year. In a secondary it means
kind of McDuffie and Watson have kind of been solidified
on the perimeter, kind of rolled to the third corner
in there a little bit, Connors kind of the mostly
nickel position, and then Cook has kind of been a
mainstay there at safety, and then they've kind of rolled
the number of players there at different spots.

Speaker 2 (02:33:09):
But overall it's good football. Team's been a number of
close games. They know how to win.

Speaker 19 (02:33:13):
Playing Sunday night on the road in that environment, he's
going to pose a significant challenge. And you go back
and look at our two games last year. I mean
we had opportunities and you know, in the end, didn't
make enough plays.

Speaker 3 (02:33:24):
But I think he's a little bit of thinking about
last year's Chiefs more than this year's Chiefs. They're not
a bad defense, and there are some categories where they
ranked top ten, but they were pretty much not top
five in anything across the board, even in some of
the advanced numbers. Now, the Texans and Chiefs are in
a small group of teams that allow less than twenty
points per game. So, by no means am I saying

(02:33:46):
he didn't know what he's talking about. I just mean
calling them a top five defense probably not what I
would do. They are not a bad defense, and they
are probably right there in the top half, maybe in
the top ten, and a lot of things in a
lot of areas. And one thing he did say that
we should be saying more of. We always talk about
Chris Jones, We always talk about coach bags. George Kayloftis

(02:34:08):
absolutely gives teams problems, and this team this past year,
the Texans, yes, they had problems with him.

Speaker 2 (02:34:16):
He'll be a problem again. TX back here with you
the final segment of this program, but don't go anywhere.

Speaker 3 (02:34:22):
We've got Rockets basketball immediately after we wrap things up
here tonight. Same thing on space City Home Network into
their Rockets all access their Rockets pre game show and
then tip Off itself. We've got Rockets launch Pad for
you coming up at six o'clock. Then Rockets countdown, and
of course we will have tip off for you as well.
MTNAC have that for you between the Rockets and the
Kings thirteen and five for Houston, five and sixteen for

(02:34:46):
the Sacramento Kings.

Speaker 2 (02:34:47):
A couple other things.

Speaker 3 (02:34:48):
I wanted to get to Butt first. As usual, we've
got tickets to give away here I mentioned him earlier.
A pair of tickets to see Chicago and Sticks. They'll
be live on August twentieth at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets
will be on sale for that Friday at ten o'clock
via ticketmaster dot com. If you don't win them here,
And a pair of tickets to see Tody's live on
December twenty ninth. Later this month, they're playing over the

(02:35:09):
House of Blues. Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster
dot com. Will you will know the answer this question
if you've been listening to the show. Something that we
have discussed this afternoon. Usually it's something we discussed during
the five o'clock hour. Something very recent that those of
you listening here will know all about seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two

(02:35:32):
one two five seven ninety you'll know the answer this
question because we just talked about it earlier here on
this program. I heard from Nick Cassio last segment and
he mentioned a bunch of Kansas City Chiefs offensive and
defensive players by name or number uh one player he mentioned.
I mentioned after his comments that it's somebody we haven't

(02:35:54):
talked about all week, haven't mentioned his name one time.
I know it's only Wednesday, but we haven't mentioned this
particular Chiefs player even once until today, until we heard
from Nick Cassio, and I noted that, and it was
actually just a few minutes ago, that he has given
a lot of teams trouble. In this team in particular,
last season, he gave the Texans trouble, and I would

(02:36:15):
expect that he will do the same on Sunday night.
Whether or not it's trouble enough that it costs them
a victory, I don't know, but enough that I think
it's the player of great concern. It's given trouble to
the Texans in the past, and we mentioned him by
name this last segment, both me and Nick Cassio, who
is that player? The answer is not Pat Mahomes. The

(02:36:36):
answer is somebody else. We just said it last segment
by those very specific words seven one three two one
two five seven nine. If you know the answer to
that question seven one three two one two five seven ninety, Josh,
we'll let you know that you have the right answer,
and you can pick your tickets of choice. We will
get back to something on Pat Mahomes. We were talking

(02:36:58):
about Patty with Nick and everybody else. So how good
what kind of careers Pat Mahomes had? Earlier this week,
an entity that shall remain nameless was frothing at the
mouth about Lebron James having ten ten points in like
thirteen hundred consecutive games. I told you how stupid that was.

(02:37:21):
Sometimes lists are awesome, sometimes they're not. Sometimes you see
who's on the list and you have a different idea
of what that list means. So Mahomes is three touchdowns
shy of twenty five touchdown passes this season. Presumably he
will get there at some point. But let's say he
gets there on Sunday night against the Texans, Well, that
will be his eighth consecutive season of at least twenty

(02:37:42):
five touchdown passes. There have only been five players to
ever do that before twenty five touchdown passes in eight
consecutive seasons. He's sitting at twenty two. They have five
more games on the schedule. He rarely gets hurt. Odds
are very good he will get there, whether it's Sunday
night or not. As I material, but he will join
this group of players that have done something that. Again,

(02:38:05):
they'll be in a group of six. Sounds like a
pretty good group so far.

Speaker 2 (02:38:09):
Well, it's here.

Speaker 3 (02:38:09):
Who's on the list. Peyton Manning's done it thirteen times.
Hall of Famer, Drew Brees has done it eleven times.
He's a finalist. There are semi finals for the Hall
of Fame class this year. I think he will get
in in his very first year of eligibility. Philip Rivers
has also done it eleven times. If there's an NFL
Hall of Fame for trash talking cleanly, he'd be in it.

(02:38:30):
I think he will be among the best players in
NFL history that are not in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. Do not think he's a Hall of Famery,
but he's an awesome, awesome regular season quarterback. Tom Brady's
done it ten times. This list is awesome, and Peyton
or Patrick Mahomes about to do it for the eighth time.
The other player that's done it is Kirk Cousins. If

(02:38:52):
you've ever listened to this show and Kirk Cousins comes up,
it's not usually for a good reason. It's not because
he's a good football player, not because he's an above
average football player. It's usually because I'm sick and tired
of watching him play football at the level he plays
football at just good enough to think you don't need
to bention, but not nearly good enough to compete with
the best teams in the NFL, and the Atlanta Falcons

(02:39:15):
are the latest team to see that happen. They spent
one hundred and sixty million on him a couple of
years ago before they drafted Michael Pennick junior, months before
they drafted him, and knew they'd made a mistake pretty
much immediately. Now that they had the opportunity to draft Penix,
they couldn't wait to not have him there. They couldn't
find any takers, They couldn't find an amicable solution for
both parties, so he remained there and not very surprisingly

(02:39:37):
in year two as an NFL player, for like the
nineteenth time, Michael Penish Junior got hurt a third ACL
surgery first on this knee. He's already had two on
the other knee. So they turned to Kirk Cousins and
he's not well. He's at the later stages of his career,
so maybe I don't need to go on and on
about how bad he is, but he's awful, just terrible,
not a good quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:39:57):
Falcons aren't a good team.

Speaker 3 (02:39:59):
They're playing for draft positioning, so sometimes the record, the figures,
they sound really really good. But if Kirk Cousins was
able to do it, and luckily it's only eight times,
so hopefully Mahomes not only does it this year but
continues to rise up the list so they can just say, hey,
this is the list of quarterbacks that have done it
ten or more times, and they could just eliminate him completely.
Texans don't care about what he does the rest of

(02:40:20):
the year talking about Mahomes. They only care about what
he does in this particular game, and a three touchdown
performance has done that a bunch this year. And when
he does, they win. That is always a concern. They've
lost one of those games. It was his last game,
four touchdowns, no picks. Obviously you're gonna play well when

(02:40:40):
that happens. This was the first time the Chiefs have
ever lost when that's happened. They were twelve to zero
in his twelve previous four touchdowns zero interception games or
five or six touchdowns with no interceptions. The Cowboys got him.
Why did the Cowboys get him? Because the Chiefs defense
couldn't stop them. They couldn't start from scoring thirty one points,

(02:41:01):
and then they literally couldn't stop them at the end
of the game. They never got the ball back. That's
the same way that Texans have tried to play the
Chiefs over the years, offensively holding onto the football. It's
actually something the team has done exceptionally well this year.
They are among the best in time of possession, which
sounds like they should also be great converting third downs.

(02:41:22):
Remarkably they're not. They don't usually go well together. If
you're good at keeping the football away from the other team,
that means you have long drives ten eleven, twelve, fourteen
play drives. You usually need to convert third downs to
do it, and the Texans are not anywhere near the
top of the league in that regard. They were good
last week and maybe the second part of CJ. Stroud

(02:41:43):
season we'll see a little bit more of that. He
personally was fantastic on third down, and the team overall,
like I said, significantly better on third down, nearly a
fifty percent in getting the necessary yards. That always starts
with the obvious. Be in good down and distance situations.
Don't be in obvious passing situations. Don't take eleven yard

(02:42:04):
sacks and force yourselves to punt. They got away with
not having to do that. Six of thirteen last week,
the second best performance of a game for him this
season on third down. More of that and you will
likely see a Texans victory. Gets talk more about it
tomorrow beginning at two. Rockets basketball coverage ready for you

(02:42:27):
right now with Rockets Launchpad.

Speaker 2 (02:42:29):
That is next